A 230-acre farm becomes the classroom for one week every marking period for fifth-graders from Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic School in Grand Rapids. The Franciscan Life Process Center in Lowell welcomes the students through a place-based learning arrangement that began this year.
The Franciscan Life Process Center, founded in 1974 by the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist, assists in the education, healthy development and cultural enrichment of individuals and communities of people throughout the greater Grand Rapids area and Kent County. The center offers music therapy, music education, counseling, spiritual integration, retreats, art workshops and classes, and land programs. In addition to the Lowell farm, the center also operates an urban campus in the Basilica Center near the Basilica of St. Adalbert in Grand Rapids.
Coming to the Franciscan Life Process Center each day during their place-based learning weeks, the students participate in hands-on activities that explore God's creation and reinforce what they’re learning in the curriculum. Students apply lessons from science when they feed the barn animals and seed wildflowers. By studying the birds on the farm and learning how many times a particular species flaps its wings in a minute, for instance, the students practice math by determining how many times that bird flaps its wings when flying over an extended period of time. They also explore culinary skills, spending a day in the kitchen to prepare and serve a meal for the staff at the center. There’s also time for team-building exercises.
“You get to experience a ton of stuff here,” said student Sean. “You get to figure out how many options there are for what you’re going to do for your life.”
And because the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist host this place-based learning program, the students get to see what life is like for people with religious vocations and to pray with them. In January, students joined the sisters in their outdoor rosary garden for the daily rosary.
“Instead of doing the rosary, this time we go to the chapel,” said student Emmakate, explaining she and her classmates get to see different aspects of the sisters’ lives.
“They love coming here,” said teacher Kristin Polakovich. “From the second they left the last [place-based learning experience], they were like, ‘When do we get to go again?’” Polakovich added it’s a highlight of her teaching career. “It’s just a way to be involved with the kids that you don’t get to do on daily basis.”
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Sister Mary Paul Moller, a counselor who works at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic School one day every week during the academic year, helps coordinate this place-based learning experience.
“We’ve always had a dream here that the land could be used by different groups of people -- and really have the children experience nature, because it’s pretty difficult now,” said Sister Mary Paul. “This gives them an opportunity and a safe place to really experience nature.”
She said the program incorporates hands-on activities that align with nature’s seasons. For instance, the fall experience includes harvesting apples, and in the winter students explore winter survival skills.
From taking care of the animals to learning how to cook, this wide range of hands-on activities truly demonstrates for the Immaculate Heart of Mary fifth- graders that learning happens both in the classroom and in our wide world.