they were also practicing experiential education—and beginning to hear multiple sides of Maine woods policy by talking to numerous individuals. The learning began with the making of morning coffee and didn’t end until questions about the moon kept people stirring the fire’s last embers at night. The group came to know each other as colleagues as well as teachers and students; trust evolved, “almost by default,” according to Kittelson. “We were all facing challenges together.” One of Tai’s beliefs is that knowing one’s students is crucial to education. Perhaps that’s why, she muses, everyone in this class learned—students and faculty. The knowledge went deep.
Above, sunrise on the East Branch of the Penobscot River. Photos by Steve Ressel and
Sarah Colletti ’10.
“There was an incredible integration of content, a sophisticated scientific and political interface. And there was a real engagement because of the education focus,” says Cline. At one point, Brianna Larsen ’11 of Cape Cod realized she had no idea which folder to file notes in—the material was that integrated. “What the students learned, stuck,” Cline adds. “They were living it, there was an intensity about the conversations, about the material; we were all involved with it.” Notes Yerlig, “There was no boundary between school and life.”
Above, a spotted salamander.
Photo by Sarah Colletti ’10.
Left, assembling a nature portrait at camp.
Photo by Megan Williams ’09.
26 | COA
With no other classes but the monster, every one of the students said they were more engaged, more overwhelmed and more committed than they had ever been. And yet, despite the depth of what the students learned, the curriculum for each class was actually more limited than what would have been offered in a single class. Says Tai, “there were things that we couldn’t do in terms of additional reading, additional content, because we didn’t have the time, because students were actually getting more depth on greater concepts, with academic content infused in every aspect of the field journey and elsewhere.” That the content of each class was more limited concerned both students and teachers until, says Bethany Johnson, a second-year transfer student from Liberty, Pennsylvania, who took this class her very first term at COA, “We came to the conclusion that we were a lot more invested, in everything.” For projects, one group designed a curriculum to study stream salamanders, another revised an environmental curriculum for Acadia National Park. The project conducted by Noah Hodgetts ’11, mapping vernal pools for Bar Harbor’s planning department, has led to the discovery of several that might be regulated under the 2007 Natural Resources Protection Act, sponsored by Ted Koffman. The students can still identify frogs by their calls. And whether they are speaking to a mem-