“Can someone remind me what we’ve talked about, what decisions we’ve been making?” Carleton junior Cailey Gibson of Shrewsbury, Vermont, asks the room full of eager grade-schoolers.
Non-renewable energy, organic versus corporate farms, and healthy snacks, answer the students in Ellen Paulsen’s fourth and fifth grade class at Nerstrand Elementary. Paulsen’s students are having their last Kids for Conservation class and reflecting on what they’ve learned.
Kids for Conservation (KFC), a volunteer program run out of Carleton’s Acting in the Community Together Office, was started six years ago by Carleton alumni Susannah Stevens ’03 and Jen Goldman ’02. Seeing the lack of environmental science curriculum in local elementary schools, the two designed a program in which Carleton students teach grade school students weekly, both to supplement the curriculum and to foster a positive attitude toward science. Today the program runs in up to 10 classrooms at four Northfield-area schools for half the school year.
Each term, KFC volunteers design a new six-week curriculum based on a theme. Past themes have included energy, pollution, and water; this year’s theme was “Making Difficult Decisions,” which asked the students to consider their own energy choices. The program directors— junior Molly Klane of Eagan, Minnesota, and senior Heather Jackson of Shaker Heights, Ohio—say each lesson is unique and incorporates hands-on activities.
This winter, in a class about renewable resources, each student was given a “mountain” (a cookie) and told to mine it for “coal” (chocolate chips). Watching the students weigh how badly they wanted to put their cookie back together was proof the lesson was sinking in.
KFC consistently receives praise from teachers, students and volunteers. “I was so impressed with this program when I came to work here,” says Sibley Elementary teacher Anne Jarvis. “I’m lucky to have such dynamic, intelligent and motivated help in the classroom.”
“I love the opportunity to be out in the community, connecting with schools and getting to know students,” says Klane. “If we’re getting kids excited about science, that’s great.”
“What’s one thing you’ve learned about the environment this term?” asks sophomore John Heydinger of St. Paul. “It’s important we remember how sensitive our world can be,” says a quiet girl from the back of the room.
The KFC group wholeheartedly agrees.
