Brush Creek Elementary School of Madison County is a beautiful, rural jewel in the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina. The county burgeons with natural resources and hidden treasures around every bend. Wise to their fortune, educators sought out The Science House to facilitate Project GREEN: Growing Respect for the Environment by Educating about Nature.

Michelle Benigno, the Asheville Outreach Coordinator of The Science House performed an environmental scan of Brush Creek Elementary School to see what place-based learning opportunities were available and found gold… educationally speaking, of course. She found acres of mountain land filled with fields, forests, a wetland, a rain garden, a creek, caches of traditional herbs and local organisms. A professional development institute was held on campus to introduce the teachers to various learning opportunities on site and provide them with new lessons and activities to excite the students.

The partnership was enhanced throughout the year by periodic grade-level coaching and training sessions. During these sessions, teachers developed interdisciplinary units based on the North Carolina Standard Course of Study for their grade level and received sustained support on inquiry pedagogy and Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields.

Now in its second year, Project GREEN continues with additional professional development sessions, new teacher-developed, place-based learning units and personal coaching sessions. On September 15th, 2009 Brush Creek Elementary School was named a Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education. It is the only school in the state and one of 314 nationwide to receive the designation. Schools must meet two criteria to be named a Blue Ribbon School: They must have at lease 40 percent of their students from disadvantaged backgrounds, and they must dramatically improve student performance on state standardized tests or score in the top 10 percent of state assessments.

Quotes from Participants:

A third grade teacher at BCES-
“This has been one of the most valuable things I have done since I started teaching. I didn’t really understand how to do some of the things you [Michelle Benigno] were teaching us until you came in my own classroom and I was able to watch you. Now, that you have modeled this technique for me; I know I can do it!”

A Kindergarten teacher-
“I didn’t know that all these things were right outside my door! Now, I can save money by just using what is right outside.”

A fifth grade teacher-
“The students just love this stuff. They could do science all day if I let them.”

Will Hoffman, county curriculum director-
“The Science House, and Michelle Benigno, has given our teachers a new perspective on science. Through our work with The Science House our teachers have been given the opportunity to develop exciting science units using the natural resources on our campus to become inquiry minded thinkers.”

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