Imagination and Connection - The Danville Project is a great springboard for many imaginative educational activities.
The Family and Community Collaboration component to Vermont’s Framework of Standards and Learning Opportunities calls for stronger ties between schools, communities and community organizations [D3]. The reconstruction and enhancement of U.S. Route 2 offers many opportunities to connect learning to real life, and especially, to involve students in diverse and critical aspects of community life.
For students, it can be a chance to experience learning as a dynamic process that they can guide, and to see how learning can and does touch their lives. For the community, it’s an investment in the future, and an opportunity to empower students, enliven the social fabric and help everyone feel more connected to place.
Several classroom projects have been designed and developed for the Council for delivery through the Danville School, including:
- The Acorn Project: Teacher Judy Clifford’s third grade class combined lessons
in Social Studies, Biology and Botany in 2001 and again in 2002 as it gathered acorns from a beloved red oak on Route 2, and germinated them under the direction of Mark C. Starrett, Ph.D., associate professor of Horticulture at the University of Vermont in Burlington. At the end of construction, students might have the opportunity to plant their saplings at some site[s] along the Project.
- The View from the Green: In Spring 2004, students of Sharon Biddle in the Architectural Design class set up on the Green and participated in recreating a 360-degree-view of the Green and surrounding buildings. This series of architectural renderings or historical photos documenting the Green as it looked in Spring 2004 were planned for use as postcards or as part of a calendar of Danville village to be used as school fund raising memorabilia.
- The Carving Project: Art teacher Lian Brehm hopes to involve interested students in the school in creating carvings or inclusions of stone or other material to complement the carved marble relief “Map of the Mountains” that will anchor the western end of the project. Sculptor Nancy Diefenbach will assist students with this project in 2009.
Danville: A Show of Hands: Designed specifically for community celebration artist Maggie Sherman, in 2004 this temporal installation involved students from the local K-12 school creating clay ‘handprints’ of community members, interviewing them and relating the data to art, science, history, civics and ‘Changes’.
More than 600 handprints from residents were collected in a 3 week period and were affixed to a tree on the village Green where they responded to natural environmental processes providing an overview of community and change.
In addition, ongoing arts-based community projects are planned that will continue to engage residents and visitors prior to and during the construction phase of the project.