Meaningful Learning Experiences for Teachers and Students Alike: One School Year of Rivers2Lake Impact Stories

Abstract

The Rivers2Lake Education program, based at the Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve, provides meaningful professional development for teachers through transformative field experiences, yearlong mentoring, and co-teaching. It directly engages students in outdoor, local, and inquiry-based learning. Rivers2Lake provides tangible resources, field opportunities, networking, and support to classrooms through direct instruction and personalized collaboration with and among teachers. The program is relationship-based and demonstrates investment of time, energy, and resources into teachers and their students. Each school year since 2012, education staff from the Lake Superior Reserve has mentored a cohort of 5-17 teachers over the course of a whole school year to navigate together changes in seasons, outdoor teaching conditions, student development, curriculum units of all subjects, as well as teacher and student confidence.