BRYTEOutdoorEd.LessonPLan

Brown Refugee Tutoring and Enrichment Program (BRYTE) is a grassroots organization developed and led by
students at Brown University that works closely with the International Institute of Rhode Island to provide literacy
learning and academic support to refugee youth in Providence. The summer camp program fills a critical need of
providing one of the only sources of literacy support and English language learning for refugee youth during the
summer; literacy classes through the International Institute and Federal and State agencies are designated for adults.
Summer classes were cotaught by refugee high school youth who worked in the classroom as junior counselors
alongside university student teachers.

The following document is a sample field guide created for the group field trip to a state park in Rhode Island. On this
trip, over 60+ students of elementary to high school age were divided into literacy classes, groups of 78 students.
Because the literacy level varied so highly between students, this enabled teachers to tailor the lesson based on the
literacy level of their students.

For many of the students recently resettled to the United States, this was one of their first experiences of natural
environments outside the city boundary. Most of the refugee families in Providence are resettled in the urban south
side neighborhoods, and barriers of language and economic accessibility can often slow families in accessing
outdoor education enrichment for their children.
For further information about the program and its impact, please see the articles published on the following sites:
news.brown.edu/articles/2013/08/bryte and http://students.brown.edu/refugeeyouthtutoringenrichment/home.

Brown Refugee Youth Tutoring and Enrichment Program Summer Programming 2014
Lincoln Woods Field Guide and Trip Overview produced by Gina Roberti.

Summer 2014

Objective:
Engage students with making observations about the natural environment of Lincoln Woods State Park
through creative writing, observational exploration and scavenger hunt activity. Teach basic literacy and
vocabulary relevant for conversing in and exploring outdoor spaces. Possibility to allow for reflection on
differences about the ecosystem/environment experienced at Lincoln Woods as compared to places
students are coming from (students represent a diversity of countries, ranging from climates and
ecosystems all over the world).
Focus will be on identifying different features of the surrounding environment (observing geological,
biological and ecological features), through a photography scavenger hunt.
Students will be grouped in teams with their literacy classes, led by accompanying senior counselors (SC)
and junior counselors (JC) pairs.

Agenda:
1. Bus disembark; cover ground rules in parking lot.
2. Introductory Energizer: Group Teams ‘Bear, Salmon Mosquito’ (see description below)
3. Break off into literacy classes, begin sending groups out to first stop (Peace Dove site), staggering groups.
4. Literacy lesson: upon reaching the rock, teachers distribute literacy notebooks and conduct creative writing
exercise (depending on literacy level of students). See attached list of possible suggestions.
5. Pass out lunches to groups (eat in literacy class clumps?)
6. All camp circle: tribal version!
(a) silent listen (b) make it rain game (c) story of glaciers
7. Students regroup into literacy classes, again sending off one class at a time (staggering groups).
8. All groups walk the route, stopping at premarked destinations along their way as they work to solve the
photography scavenger hunt.

Materials:
clipboard with field guide, pens and pencils
printed vocabulary words with pictures, whiteboard and marker to illustrate concepts
literacy notebooks and writing utensils for students! for creative writing and drawing
phototaking device  (phones)+memory for scavenger hunt!
bugspray
watercolors and art supplies (filler activity)
food and water supplies (Smore’s, charcoal and lighter, watermelon, water coolers, plastic cups)

Other Important Notes for Teachers:
Ideas for the literacy lessons (conducted by the Peace Dove boulders) are contained in accompanying
document. Along with scavenger hunt guide, more detailed information about each site is contained in
accompanying document.
There are 5 formal stops along the scavenger hunt, with fabric flags (partially hidden) marking each stop.
At the end of the trip make sure to help students in your class check for ticks. Deer ticks are very small (the
size of a pinhead) and carry a dangerous disease called Lyme Disease which is very prevalent in RI.
During scavenger hunt hike, follow the cloth trail markers and also stick with the paths closest to the water:
this will eventually swing you down to where you intersect the road, take a left on that road; our final
destination is a park area with small grates for grilling and picnic by the Chimney Grove lots.
Extended literacy lesson ideas: write a myth about the Peace Dove rocks! How do you think these rocks
got here? Sense, sight, sounds, smells, writing exercise. Drawing: what do you think this environment
looked like in the past? Etc. These exercises can be used for structure in the creative writing portion.

Photography Scavenger Hunt (Stations AF):
A. ‘Wrinkled Rock’
What’s going on here?
The base rock in Lincoln Woods (called bedrock by geologists, meaning the rock that
underlies all soil, trees, etc.) is very old granite; it is difficult to tell much because it is SO old
and weathered, meaning in geology terms, that it is several hundreds of millions of years old,
and has gone through A LOT for a rock.
Some notes: Granite is a type of volcanic rock that crystallizes from liquid out of a volcano.
Other types of rocks (sedimentary) are formed from bits of other rocks, sand, etc. but this rock
originally started out as magma beneath the earth’s surface, and probably did not erupt on the
surface like a volcano but did cool (going from liquid> solid) underground in some large
magma chamber underneath a volcano.
What do we see? The rock is grey, and covered (if you look closely) with grey colored
organisms called ‘lichen’ (a type of fungus).
It has been pushed multiple times below the surface to deeper locations with higher
temperature and pressures where the rocks old granite piece crosscut by many fractures that
filled with quartz as it was trying to escape from deep pressures down below.

Point out the similarity between these veins in the rock and the veins in your own arm.
Take a picture posing either in the shape of the veins or showing off your arms!

B. How old are YOU tree?
Calculate the age of a pine tree! see the diagram for reference below.
First, identify the pine. It has soft needles versus leaves like the other trees.

needles leaves (here of a beech tree)

How old is this pine tree? _______________ years old.
Take a picture with your group holding up fingers to show how old
you calculated the tree to be.

C. SPLIT rock!
Look for a large tree growing out of a giant crack in a rock!

Ask students: Why do you think this occurred?
Take 2 pictures here. 1, with students all standing around one student (actng like the
rock circuling the tree), and 2 with students in the crack visable as you continue
walking down the path around the side.

Scientifically, how does this happen?

Water gets inside tiny pore spaces in the rock, then during the winter freezes, and when water
freezes it expands (solid phase is more volumnous than liquid phase), this pressure cracks
the rock! See if you can find further examples of this in many other rocks throughout the park!

D. Big rock II. CAVE ROCK
Take 2 pictures here: (1) your group in the cave.
Brainstorm: what type of creatures might make use of this cave? In different seasons?
(2) As a group, Build  fairy houses/ephemeral sculptures. Take a picture with your creation.

E. Lichen say what?
The rocks at this stop are covered with a type of fungus called ‘lichen’. Lichen is really amazin
What is this stuff growing on the rocks?? A plant or animal? HOw is it growing? Where does it
get its food?

A lichen is not a single organism, but the result of a partnership (mutualisticsymbiosis) between a fungus
and an algaor cyanobacteria. The cyanobacteria gets nutrients from the sun (photosynthesis) like normal
plants. The fungus is more like an animal. Lichens can grow in some of the most extreme environments on
Earth, for example in the Arctic tundra, hot desserts, rocky coasts, or growing as we see here on bare rock!

Ask students to act out the story of ‘agal’ and a ‘funguy’ who happened to take a ‘lichen’ to each other (and
now their marriage is on the rocks!).

Take a picture with your group acting like lichen on the rocks (hugging the rocks).

F. BATHTUB RINGS!
Bathtub ring on trees/rocks in lake/pond: shows how water level is constantly
changing over time.
Point out the colored rings on rocks and trees in this part of the lake. What can these colored
lines tell you about how the water level in the lake is changing over time?
Why would lakes have different amounts of water, in different seasons, and over time?

Estimate how hight the water level used to be to form that line; hold up your thumb at arms
length distance and line it up with the lines. We approximated the height of the lines to be
about the size of your thumbnail; which translates to anywhere from 69 inches (the size of a
medium sized adult foot). Conclusion? the water level used to be almost a foot higher!

Take a picture with your group all pointing to these features.

EXTRA
Challenge: photograph a living ANIMAL. BONUS challenge, photography someone
from your class with that creature!

Literacy Lesson (determined by each literacy class teacher):
Potential Vocabulary:
mammals, tree, maple, poison ivy, oak, leaf, rock, lake, trail, hike/hiking, map, directions,
acorn
mammals, reptiles, amphibians

Watch out for poison ivy!
Leaves of three, leave them be. Hairy rope, don’t be a dope!

With thanks to the incredible team of student teachers, refugee youth and their families, and the financial
support and backing from the Brown University Swearer Center for Public Service.

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