Stephen Seay Profile - Experience-Based Education

By Kirsten Kindt, AEE, from an interview with Steve Seay, in Dallas, Texas

After 28 years if teaching secondary-school science, Steve Seay traded the confines of the classroom for new educational initiatives. Although he is proud of the nearly three decades he spent teaching at St. Mark's School of Texas, he has always believed that the experiential-based education that takes place in the outdoors---especially on farms and ranches---is as valuable as the formal education received in traditional school settings. “Students cannot acquire some skills, like self-reliance, while sitting in a classroom,” says Steve.

A lot of practical learning takes place among the students participating in the Texas and Colorado-based ranch experiences that Steve created. During 2 to 10 day stays in a rural ranch environment, students learn how to be self-reliant because they reside in a rustic, log cabin with no electricity often in harsh weather conditions. They learn how to build fires, catch, clean and cook fish, shoot ducks, pluck them, clean them, and campfire-cook them in Dutch ovens so they taste good. They learn to plan menus then go to the grocery store to select the provisions that will allow them to be self-sustaining for their stay. Over the course of the experience, students take care of themselves and each other without access to cell phones, computers, heat or traditional power. Thus, they pick up life skills that stretch them, help them grow, and perhaps even change the course of their lives.
 
It is a big self esteem builder for a kid to not only to be self-reliant, but to be comfortable and enjoy being “off grid” with no electricity, using alternative sources of light, planning for, preparing, and cooking meals, and staying dry and warm in stormy weather. Especially given that many of the students have never before experienced really dark skies, or life without television. At the ranches, they might encounter---for the first time---myriad varieties of wildlife: armadillos, bobcats, nighthawks, coyotes, prairie dogs, marmot, owl, antelope, beaver, elk, osprey, eagles and more. Living partially off the land, they develop a deep appreciation for the land, and its wildlife and nature.
 
Parents that send their kids to Steve’s ranches, do so with the goal that their son or daughter will spend time out of city and that the experience will be positive and enjoyable. They are proud that their kids will also do some manual labor (splitting and stacking firewood, tearing out beaver dams, etc) as a part of the weekend, and they are also interested in the parts of the curriculum that augment traditional academics such as lessons in astronomy, geology, the life sciences, marine biology, ecology, and geography.
 
Steve also offers the ultimate in an applied sciences field trip---a 12 day voyage on a boat off of Southeast Alaska. The southeastern Alaska rainforest often leaves students dumbfounded by the wildlife and environment. They see and hear humpback whales breathing and, breaching, and this elevates the learning and the memory. Kids have seen eagles swoop down on fish, they observe their nests, watch glaciers calve off into the sea, gather the ice and use it in the cooler and as their source of drinking water. And a favorite is seeing the salmon runs - and understanding how that ecosystem works with the salmon, the bears, seagulls and eagles.

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