Stories

Out Teach

Today we're heading into the great outdoors with Out Teach!  Out Teach works one-on-one with teachers to ensure that EVERY student has access to engaging, hands-on, outdoor science activities that get them excited about learning in every subject. Not only does real-world science build valuable STEM skills, it helps students become curious problem-solvers, motivated teammates, and accomplished learners, ready to make their world a better place.  We spoke with Executive Director, Edna Chirico, about the impact Out Teach is having on our community.

What would you like the community to know about the challenges your organization is trying to solve?

Science has a long track record of transforming the impossible into reality. But it takes a fearless generation of dreamers, thinkers, and doers to set new transformation in motion. For them, we step up to transform the world around us into a lab where everything is an experiment waiting to happen. Together, we crack open the potential to solve for the unknown and set the stage for the future that should be to become real.

What is your organization’s role in the community?

We believe in the power of experiential learning to bring the world into focus for students. By going outside of the classroom to create outdoor experiences that bring science to life, we help every student access a scientific mindset that forever empowers them to ask questions, expand learning, and move from theory to action in service of opening up new possibilities.

We love impact stories, could you share one?

Ms. Kiauna Ferguson is our Carolinas Teacher of the year.  She now uses outdoor learning to help her students shine and has created a true community of enthusiastic learners outdoors. As excited as her students are, Ms. Ferguson embraces that energy and adds her own, creating engaging, fun, student-directed experiences, and eagerly looking for creative ways to incorporate outdoor learning into her daily instruction. She’s an “all in” life-long learner who says she learns as much from her students as they do from her.

About the image pictured above: Outdoor Learning must become a key component of our elementary strategy so learning is real and relevant to all students, especially our highest needs students.  This strategy increases student engagement and helps them retain what they must learn to become successful in life. Outdoor learning is also a proven key strategy for social emotional learning and health/wellness.

Contact: Edna Chirico

Email: echirico@out-teach.org

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