by Meghan Tierney | Staff Writer
When Krisna Becker of Clarksburg began researching schools for her 5-year-old daughter, she was disappointed that no nearby public schools offered an environmentally focused curriculum.
Becker, along with other parents, educators and natural resources professionals, hopes to change that with the Seneca Creek Nature School, a proposed public charter school that would serve students in grades kindergarten through four and eventually go through eighth grade. The project has been in the planning stages since April, Becker said, and the group plans to submit an application to the Montgomery County Board of Education in the fall...
...The school would use the Environment as an Integrating Context curriculum developed by the State Education and Environment Roundtable, a cooperative partnership of 16 state education departments, including Maryland. Features include breaking down boundaries between disciplines, hands-on learning and service projects in the community, collaborative instruction and integrating the environment into different subject areas, according to SEER's website.
"It's a very community-based and environmentally based model that's proven to improve test results successfully," said Becker, a stay-at-home mother, volunteer naturalist at Black Hill Regional Park in Boyds and former lab technician at Human Genome Sciences in Rockville...
Note to Charter School applicants: The current Board of Education members aren't going to approve any applications.
ReplyDelete4 Board seats are up for election in the fall.
Candidates have until July 6th to file to run in the fall election.