When you’re a student at Morgantown’s Eastwood Elementary School, the whole building is a learning lab – and so is everything else on the other side of the window.
Eastwood is Monongalia County’s only certified green school, built with sustainable materials.
Which means it knows its place in the natural world.
That’s why the West Virginia Public Education Collaborative tapped into that place Tuesday.
The collaborative, which is housed in the WVU Office of the Provost, selected the school on Mileground as part of its Remake Learning Days Festival, which runs through May 19.
Remake Learning is a network designed to help young people navigate today’s rapid social and technological exchange.
The festival, which is overseen by the collaborative, is delving into everything from sustainable pizza to weather balloon launches and a virtual walking tour of Antarctica.
Eastwood Elementary is one of the more unique stops in the festival: A green school thriving into the middle of a bustling, high-traffic commercial district not necessarily known for pastoral climes.
At the “Wonderful Watershed” event, students stepped into a model watershed environment for interactive learning that addressed a bevy of environmental concerns that make up the ecosystem (scientific, social and otherwise) in the Mountain State.
Stormwater runoff issues.
Non-point source pollution.
Soil water.
Water as a truly viable energy source.
Donna Hoylman Peduto, the executive director of the collaborative, said the idea is to extend the festival’s reach – just like the root systems in an old-growth forest in West Virginia.
“We recruit hosts who can create future-ready, innovative learning experiences for youth from pre-kindergarten to high school,” she said.
