In 1981, Cooper Foundation President Jack Thompson approached Anne Campbell, Nebraska State Commissioner of Education, with the idea of awards to teachers who had innovative ideas or had developed projects that led to better teaching. He was particularly interested in the improvement of teaching in the areas of written communication, economics and history.
Jack Thompson’s career had impressed upon him the importance of a strong fundamental education in these fields and he wanted to reward inspirational teachers. He proposed that the Cooper Foundation set aside $15,000 for teaching awards of $1,000 each.
(Nebraska Department of Education Booklet featured award recipients)
The Nebraska Department of Education agreed to provide staff to coordinate the Cooper Foundation Excellence in Teaching Awards, and that first year they received 72 entries. Recipients were selected by a panel of judges in each discipline, who chose the projects with the highest potential to improve classroom learning. In the program’s third year, more subjects were added to the eligible list, including foreign languages, mathematics and science. That year (1983-84) more than 120 entries were received and 30 awards were made.
One of those, in the category of Written Communication, was for “The Outdoor Classroom” awarded to Will Locke and Harold Vlach of Hastings Junior High School. Organized in 1983, the project involved language arts, social studies, math, and science, and the classroom was at Camp Augustine, between the channels of the Platte River, 21 miles north of Hastings. For two days in the fall, 7th graders, teachers, and volunteers camped on the river, covering academic subjects but also first aid, tree planting, Native history, photography, fishing, art, and more.
Dr. Will Locke, who became a professor of teacher education at Hastings College after decades as a public school teacher, recalled the project:
“It was wonderful working with Harold – he taught science and I taught social studies and language arts, and we were a good combination. The students were great fun. We walked up and down the river and had stations along our trail, stopping at each one to cover various subjects and relate them to what was on the river – this was the “Walk Through Time.” That first year [Nebraska Poet Laureate] William Kloefkorn helped us with language arts, and that was very exciting – that was “Poetry on the Platte”. They talked about Robert Frost’s poem Nothing Gold Can Stay. Seventh-graders really get metaphors, and soon they were talking about someone they had lost. The students kept notes the whole time, and at the end Bill would invite them to look through their notes and develop their own poetry. We published a book of that poetry.”
(The Outdoor Classroom, 1983)
The program continued for many years, with other teachers taking lead on the project after Dr. Locke moved to Hastings College. In an article for the Grand Island Independent in 2006, teacher Sandra Warner said, “When we do surveys of students, it is always one of the high points of schools, the seventh-grade outdoor experience is nearly always mentioned.”
See Will Locke and Harold Vlach’s curriculum for The Outdoor Classroom
