WIP: An innovative program at PALMS
Students hiking and learning at the bucolic Hawk Mountain Sanctuary
A “hands-on, feet wet” approach to learning, the WIP Program is an innovative cross-curricular opportunity for Palisades students to study the local watershed. Beginning in the 2008-09 school year, the Watershed Integration Program, better known as WIP, is an integrative approach to learning available to seventh grade students at Palisades Middle School (PALMS). This unique program hits all of the curricular standards in mathematics, science, social studies and English while developing a lifelong interest in environmental stewardship.
The Watershed Integration Program’s mission is to utilize a rigorous inquiry-based approach through means of a student-driven, standards-based curriculum. We strive to enhance our students’ abilities to gather, analyze, apply and communicate first-hand information in an environmental context. Additionally, we hope to instill a positive sense of responsibility and pride in our students’ own personal, educational path bringing forth an imprint in their continuation of lifelong learning and stewardship.
Given the myriad differences in individual students’ learning styles and abilities, it is apparent that no single curricular structure can satisfy all needs. Alternative forms of curricula are advisable to help meet this challenge. In the establishment of a PALMS integrative education program, we believe that we have found such an alternative. As structured, it provides students with a different, yet equally excellent educational experience at an efficient cost.
Utilizing a rigorous problem-solving approach, WIP is personalized, student-driven, standards-based curriculum which prepares students to be successful in the workplace or college and career preparation at the high school.
WIP classroom studies weave each of the academic disciplines into the study of hydrology, specifically a watershed. The school year content mirrors the progression of a watershed, from local fresh headwaters to the open ocean. To enhance the content experiences faced within the classroom we believe the students must experience aspects of the programming first hand to truly understand the environmental impact on such ecosystems and make their own ecological footprints in the world.
Excursions for students include Cooks Creek Watershed for data analysis, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, Churchville Nature Center (Lenni Lenape Village), Delaware Slaughter Beach for horseshoe crab studies, Nurture Nature Center and Chincoteague Bay Field Station in Wallops Island, VA, a four-day overnight experience.
The only cost to students throughout the course of the entire Watershed Integration Programming is the overnight Chincoteague Bay Field Station. Students are provided with a scholarship if needed to participate, and donations are accepted to help those students who cannot afford the Wallops Island trip.
Throughout the course of the school year, students participating in the WIP programming will participate in varying forms of service entailing environmental stewardship. Past service components have included some of the following:
- Removal of invasive species
- Union Terrace Elementary (Allentown) outdoor classroom
- HydroMania at Cedar Crest College
- PALMS Pond Construction
- Bluebird and Bat Boxes Installations
- Horseshoe Crab Census