Danbury ACE Students Learn Lessons Outside the Classroom

Press release:

DANBURY, CONN. — From pitching tents and sleeping in 37-degree weather to building a fire and cooking foil-packet dinners over an open flame, students at Danbury’s Alternative Center for Excellence recently took learning way out of the classroom and learned some valuable skills.

In October, 14 students in grades nine through 12 along with two ACE faculty members camped out for three days at Hickory Run State Park in Pennsylvania and visited the Lackawanna Coal Mine.

“We do the same academies at the high school, but we incorporate other activities,” said Andrew Hellmann, a math teacher at the school for 14 years who often chaperones trips. “This was a full camping experience.”

Students cooked their own dinner of onions, potatoes, vegetables and meat over a fire for which they gathered wood and started, before settling in tents to keep warm. Students were prepared for cold weather and instructed on what to bring. The trip, Hellmann said, is good preparation for the school’s Appalachian Trail trip in the spring.

“We try to build off everything we do,” Hellman said. Not only do the students learn outdoor and survival skills, they also learn how to work together.

“They connect to each other. They overlook their differences and work as a team,” Hellmann said.

“It was cool to see what they had to go through. Kids as young as 12 had to take care of mules and some even younger had to keep the doors open for circulation. It made me look to when Iwas seven and what I was doing then. I was just seven and playing outside every day.”

Eavyn Fernandez, 15, junior, appreciated the opportunity to get to know his fellow students

“We all bonded well together,” he said. “We had to get fire wood and build a fire. We got a better sense of who we were. And everybody seems like a really good friend now.”

Eavyn added that it was a great opportunity to visit the mine and see how things have developed since it closed in 1968.

“It gave me an idea how people in society and working conditions have really developed,” he said.

#Danbury Board of Education#

Photo: Flickr Creative Commons

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