Westborough – At the end of the school year, students at the Mill Pond School finished a months-long project on Native American artifacts found in their own community by introducing the “Vista Trails Launch” outside the school.
The project started in December 2016 when Alan Leveillee, the lead archeologist from Public Archeology Laboratory and Sue Speckman from the Westborough Historical Commission, spoke with two of Mill Pond’s fourth-grade homeroom classrooms about the history of the land the school sits on.
The students, led by their teachers Erin Yablonski and Ashley Orlando, then worked on a project-based learning unit called “Vista Trails” where they built an interactive natural and human history learning trail.
With assistance from Stephanie Garrett, Mill Pond’s technology integration teacher, the students constructed an interactive walking trail outside the school with QR codes linking up to their research. Each code connects with a student’s research, poem, iMovie, podcast and more.
The students also used traditional research and writing skills to explore and report on such topics as the history and culture of the Nipmucs, glacial rock beds, flora, fauna, and animals of the SuAsCo Watershed region, combined with 21st-century skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, creativity and communication using their iPads.
At the trail’s kickoff event, students and their parents enjoyed walking along the trail as they scanned the codes with their phones and watched the projects along the route.
