Kids thrive on active learning

Stopping by Lockwood Elementary School to speak with fifth-grade veteran teacher Sherry Byrd was an unexpected delight. She and her students had returned from a field trip, which itself was a result of a workshop she'd attended with other teachers recently to participate in the KidWind workshop.

KidWind and Pattern Energy sponsor the program to help students and teachers explore renewable energies.

Upon returning from the teacher workshop held at Mesalands Community College in Tucumcari, Byrd got together with fellow fifth-grade teachers Susan Nagel and Sandra Reed, and they planned a field trip for their students. Not only did they visit and tour Mesalands and learn about modern-day windmills, called wind turbines, they visited the Mesalands Community College's Dinosaur Museum and Natural Sciences Laboratory.

As I began to ask questions about the field trip, Byrd introduced me to two of her students to share more.

Bryan Quezada and Manny Emmanuel sat down with me and quietly began to tell about their recent adventure. The more they spoke, however, the more excited they became. Soon they were enthusiastically describing in detail all the things they'd seen and learned.

They learned all about wind turbines and got to climb through the nacelle on the ground, they said.

Seeing my puzzled look, they explained the nacelle was the "boxy" thing at the top of the wind turbine.

Manny continued, "The turbines cost a lot to build, though; they're really expensive."

Bryan picked up the conversation, "And ... you can't run them if it's too windy because it's not safe."

The students went on to tell all about their experiences, including how they got to eat lunch at the college.

Then, came the dinosaurs. Manny and Bryan really came alive as they proceeded to go through every moment looking at the dinosaur displays and artifacts. They both agreed, "We loved the Dinosaur Museum, and the dinosaurs were a lot bigger than we thought," Manny said.

Bryan offered, "We got to touch dinosaur and mammoth teeth and big stones with fossils. These were from the Cretaceous Period," he said.

They went on to talk at length about the saber-tooth tiger, petrified wood and petrified eggs. By the time they told me at length about the amber they'd seen with various types of insects trapped inside, my head was spinning, and I told them I'd certainly learned interesting new information that day.

Active learning, first hand; what a concept.

Cindy Kleyn-Kennedy is the instructional technology coordinator for Clovis Municipal Schools. She can be reached at:

[email protected]