Editor’s Note: This is the first story in an invitational series running through this school year, documenting bright spots in our schools. We are seeking short feature pieces about specific instances of the most meaningful learning, from the students’ perspective. These can be examples of innovative projects, or more traditional learning experiences, like a great class discussion– the key is to show and not tell, bringing the reader into the students’ point of view. The series is led by Adelle Macdowell, student editor from Lamoille, who wrote this first installment. Students interested to contribute to this series, or to explore other opportunities to publish work with VTDigger, please email Ben Heintz, the Workshop’s editor, at [email protected]
by Adelle Macdowell, Lamoille Union High School
On a Wednesday afternoon in early September, while most students were in class, Lamoille Union senior Hayden Cheever walked along the path between the upper and lower soccer fields, where sunlight cut through the trees onto the hard-packed dirt and carpet of pine needles.
Cheever stopped and took a disc from the bag he carried. He stood at the seventh tee of the disc golf course he was building and looked down the steep path. He had memories of walking up the path to watch his siblings’ games at the upper fields. “Once I wanted to make this disc golf course, I knew the woods path is where I wanted to put it,” he said.
The course is nine holes, beginning between the two lower soccer fields and following the paths through the woods to end up back at the lower fields. Cheever said he put a lot of thought into the course layout. “I did a lot of walking, and bringing discs out and throwing them in the woods with no targets,” he said, “trying to get a good tempo.”
Cheever built his disc golf course through EPIC (Educational Path I Choose), a Lamoille Union High School program focused on project-based learning. EPIC runs all day in place of the traditional four-block structure.
Kim Hoffman and Amber Carbine-March are science teachers at Lamoille Union, and worked together to found EPIC. They recognized how “siloed” a content-driven curriculum was, and wished they could spend longer with students than the time they had in their classes.
“I’m not particularly convinced that my biology curriculum is going to solve the problems that our world is facing, or help folks find meaning and joy and purpose in the world,” Carbine-March said. “I didn’t feel like I was giving folks the opportunity to build that skill set in my content-area classes.”
EPIC is centered around 4 “pillars”: Know Myself, Grow Myself, Make My Mark, and See It Through. Students create projects that meet content proficiencies and hit on all four EPIC pillars. EPIC projects have ranged from creating a documentary to building a skateboarding ramp. One student built a computer, and others worked together to write a musical.
One way students come to “know themselves” is through designing a project that they’re passionate about. Cheever started playing disc golf the summer after his freshman year. His coworker at Smugglers’ Notch had a practice basket set up, and Cheever began playing on his own, too. As disc golf became a big part of his life, he knew he wanted to include it in an EPIC project.
Cheever took inspiration from the Pearl Street disc golf course in Essex, which is too far away for him to play often. By creating a “beginner-oriented” course nearby, Cheever said he hoped to introduce more people to the sport.
For the “grow myself,” aspect, students step outside of their comfort zone and learn new skills. Cheever gained experience asking questions and reaching out to community partners. He said he learned to worry less about getting “no” for an answer.
“I started asking for help,” Cheever said. “I realized I can’t do this on my own, you know?”
Students “make their mark,” in a variety of ways. Some projects impact the whole school or community, like Cheever’s disc golf course, while other projects have a more specific impact. The point is to have a project outcome that reaches beyond the student.
Cheever said “seeing it through” was the biggest and most challenging EPIC pillar. He had been working on his disc golf course since the second quarter of the 2020-21 school year, and the process was far from linear.
He spent most of his junior year creating the course layout and fundraising. He worked with a community partner to plan the course layout, but ultimately chose to move forward with the project on his own, which was a difficult decision. Fundraising was another challenge–the total cost of the project was $2,000-$3,000. Cheever sourced funds in part by reaching out to local businesses and asking them to sponsor holes on the course.
Cheever ordered the nine disc golf baskets through Smugglers Notch and installed them by securing the bases in 5-gallon buckets filled with concrete. He then dug holes to bury the buckets. On September 29th, Cheever finally “saw it through,” and officially completed the project.
On October 20th, Taking advantage of the warm weather, Cheever and a friend played a round of disc golf after lunch. This time, instead of throwing discs with a general idea of where the holes would be, they threw them into the baskets Cheever installed.
Cheever said he’s excited to have a completed course. “I didn’t think it would be possible,” he said, “and with the resources and help of EPIC Academy, it was.”
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