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Beyond Our Borders Changing the Organizational Paradigm: The Yukon Experience By Robert Sharp About 20 years ago, a number of Yukon subjects offered in the “school-within-a- schools took a different approach to outdoor school” program. education and outdoor pursuits. During the 1970s and 1980s, most Yukon high schools The field studies approach often takes on the and junior high schools offered a course mantel of place-based education since many called Outdoor Education. These courses of the field studies are centred on responding fit into the conventional blocks in a school to community concerns, studying and timetable. Outdoor activities longer than collecting data and proposing possible these blocks of time typically took time remedies to the community-defined problem. from other teachers. This created a constant Addressing “real” topics and finding ways source of school tension in which students to apply the prescribed learning outcomes often fell behind in the other subjects and to these studies have proven to engage were required to play “catch-up” on their students in ways that secure knowledge and own time. This approach did little to link strengthen positive community attitudes. the outdoor activity with other subjects or to In this respect, including field studies with gain support from the larger school staff. outdoor pursuits has been proven to be a successful educational approach. In the early 1990s, the Yukon Department of Education proposed an alternative model. The ability to fuse an outdoor activity with This model changed the organizational related field studies benefits the whole paradigm for secondary schools. The educational enterprise. The linking of field proposed organizational model more closely studies with an outdoor pursuit gives followed the organizational plan used in both the study and the activity additional kindergarten. This involved a cohort of meaning. In addition, field studies reinforce secondary students together for a semester both labs and lectures in specific subjects. addressing a wide range of subjects with Courses such as geography, survey biology, the same teacher, focused on an overriding quantitative chemistry, ecology and theme. A wide variety of instructional styles environmental studies lend themselves to was incorporated, including activities that field studies that link with outdoor pursuits. integrate learning outcomes of the subjects. The balance of this paper will describe one There are presently more than a dozen of such program, describe a number of field these programs offered in Yukon schools. studies employed in this program and highlight some of the long-term benefits of For the programs that include an outdoor this program. education component, the “school-within- a-school” model addressed the problems Experiential Science is a Yukon public- related to the classes missed by outdoor school program of studies for Grade 11 trips and provided necessary flexibility students. The program integrates Biology in timetabling since the teachers could 11, Geography 12, Chemistry 11, Art 11, shift their own time allocations based on Field Methods 11 and Physical Education studies, activities, student abilities and 11. The program features 35 to 40 days of S program needs. This approach raised field studies each semester and two days Y A other instructional time and methods each week in Yukon College science labs. W concerns. These concerns were addressed Field studies expose students to a wide H by developing a range of “field studies” variety of people associated with a range T A that took students into outdoor activities of resource management issues. Rigorous P that required application of specific skills, field methods, well-kept data and sound 28 knowledge and attitudes central to the other scientific methodology are the foundation Beyond Our Borders of the program. Students collect field data students learn. Many Yukon educators and and analyze various aspects of study issues parents believe that these models should be before developing strategies for addressing expanded and be accessible to many more the topics. Students are excited and students. motivated by the range of challenging and often adventurous studies, the importance of their studies, and co-operative work relationships that develop during their The Experiential Science 11 program semester in Experiential Science. Field is one of 12 similar programs studies resonate with those students who offered in Yukon schools. Each has a learn best experientially and in social different focus but follows a similar contexts. Over the 18 years the Experiential organizational plan: a cohort of Science program has been offered, students students for a semester taking four to have consistently reported the short- and six courses within the semester. The long-term benefits of the program. Many programs include course offerings who struggled with conventional classes ranging from Grade 9 to Grade 12. The report on the success and enjoyment they first of these programs, ACES 10, was found in the field studies approach to developed in the late 1980s and proved courses. In terms of conventional academic to be so successful that the Ministry scores, students in Experiential Science encouraged expansion in other subject consistently outscored all other classes areas. MAD 11–12 (music, art and taking similar courses. drama), FEAST 11–12 and Experiential Science 11 followed within a two-year The list of the field studies is extensive. period. Over the past 17 years, eight Many have been ongoing studies spanning more courses have been developed. All a number of years. The Experiential follow a similar organizational plan. Science website outlines many of these They include OPES (Outdoor Pursuits field studies: www.yesnet.yk.ca/schools/ and Experiential Studies 9), PASE woodst/experiential/field%20studies.htm. (OPES in French), MAD 9–10, GLOBE For example, included are an International 11, SASE 9, CHAOS (First Nations Polar Year project monitoring a local lake excellence program), Fabrics 11–12 and that has undergone recent changes in water Haines Junction Experiential Science levels and water quality, sets of field studies 11. Most of these programs have related to salmon enhancement and habitat seen changes in teachers and course restoration projects, forestry studies on beetle offerings but the central organizing infestations and regeneration rates, marine themes have remained. and stream monitoring projects, caribou habitat studies and many others. Students who were in the program more than 12 years ago are able to vividly describe the activities Bob Sharp has held various education positions and studies they took part in. They report in the Yukon over the past 43 years. He developed that their involvement in these studies had and taught the Experiential Science 11 program a significant influence on their subsequent for seven years prior to retirement in 2001. studies and on the careers that followed. During this period he was typically involved for 90 days a year in outdoor activities and field Including field studies that complement studies. He now works part-time with the Yukon academic studies with a variety of outdoor Department of Education and Yukon College. S Y pursuits has proven to be a most successful A W model of education. It is a model that H required moving away from conventional T A secondary school organizational patterns P and developing organizational models that better reflect student engagement and how 29