ProFESS: After School
What's ProFESS?
ProFESS is our Program for Future Environmental Scientists and Stewards. A multi-week program tailored to you and your students' needs, ProFESS: After School inspires students of all ages (K-12) to connect with, and become stewards of, their environment.
With an emphasis on immersive, at-the-source, experiential and playful learning, LandHealth staff come to your school to introduce your students to the natural world that awaits them in their very own neighborhoods and schoolyards. Exploring topics from watersheds and water quality to pollinators and plants, a world of discovery awaits when you travel outside your classroom doors.
How does it work?
Wonder abounds when you go looking for it! Utilizing concepts of playful learning, ProFESS: After School inspires meaningful, real-world connections between students and the material, enabling experimentation and discovery and fostering creativity and imagination.
Playful learning enables learning to be enjoyable and interactive and can help reduce stress or anxiety associated with typical learning methods. A holistic approach, it has profound impacts on social, emotional, and cognitive development. Through ProFESS, LandHealth guides students on their learning journeys as they gain confidence going outside and exploring the world around them, no matter their age.
What will my students learn?
The goals of ProFESS are to:
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Expose students to new concepts and ideas about nature in their urban environment
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Increase students' confidence going outdoors and exploring independently
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Instill a sense of wonder and spark curiosity about the world around them
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Bolster students' roles and goals as future environmental stewards and scientists
Going outside is an inherently interdisciplinary learning experience, from the art, history, and culture of an area to the ecosystem dynamics and relationships occurring within it. While the topics explored vary based on your students' interests, examples include:
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Philly plants, natives vs. nonnatives, and fungi
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Water cycles, river species, and estuaries
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Geology, soil structure, and microorganisms
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Neighborhood histories, Philly landmarks, and figures/communities of importance
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Environmental art, poetry, and journalling
Sparking
Evoking
Inspiring
Instilling
Curiosity
Sparking
What's happening in the natural world around me?
Evoking
Discovery
Are these phenomena happening in my neighborhood too?
connection
Inspiring
Who else has experienced this in history? Around the world?
Instilling
wonder
How can I explore more? What else is there to find?
