8th Grade Science: Learning From the Experts (the Lumber Primes!)

Ezra and Hendrix looking at an identification chart

The 8th grade Uppers class, in addition to their study of chemistry, are doing an ongoing co-learning class with the Lumber Primes. Each week, we go out to the forest, do our weekly data collection on the two beech trees we're monitoring for a Harvard study on climate change, and then join the Lumber Primes for an exploration and investigation. It's a weekly class that focuses on identifying the many different organisms in the biomes that surround our school.

Both groups of students have things to teach each other and learn together. The Primes know their woods spot inside and out. Need a colored pencil? They can find it. Want to find a salamander? Follow the Lumber Primes' lead. The Uppers, on the other hand, have advanced reading, writing, and reasoning skills to find out more information regarding the day's finds. Each time the mixed-age groups get together, they end up finding, naming, and learning about a new species or two.

Students collected mushrooms, bugs, worms, leaves, nuts, and more in the afternoon sun. Uppers remarked on their Primes buddies’ eagerness to learn. And the Primes were very excited to spend time with the "giants," the playful warning they shriek when the Uppers arrive. When we get together and share at the end of class, everyone has something to contribute: a drawing, a story, a new word, a new friend. We look forward to more opportunities to learn and work together as a big happy double class. 

Reading identification books in the lumber library

Uppers and Lumber Primes drawing their specimens