Natural ledge and stone dam at Mansfield Hollow, Connecticut.

Suggestions for Middle (and High) School Education

Single wall on ledge. Laid degree construction, though not well laid. Sherman, CT.

OUTDOOR, INQUIRY-DRIVEN INVESTIGATIONS

Stone walls offer the opportunity for hands-on activities, explorations, and lessons in many school subjects such as art, history, math, science, language arts, geography, and any combination of the above. To learn more about how to get your students involved, link to Stone Wall Investigations. Note: This is a large module of investigations.

INDOOR READING AND DISCUSSION

Professor Thorson's two books for adult readers have been used as supplementary reader in college and secondary education in courses dealing with American Studies and Environmental Studies.

STONE BY STONE

Anecdotal comments received by Professor Thorson's colleagues who have read and used it suggest that it meets several learning objectives, listed below. In 2003, it was used as a text for the annual Envirothon competition for the theme titled "Cultural Landscapes."

Revisionist History: A history of the northeastern United States written from the point of view of the woodland soil, rather than from the point of view of a disadvantaged and/or overlooked human group.
American Culture: A link between familiar American writers and artists and the changing New England landscape. Examples include William Bradford, Ralph W. Emerson, Henry. D. Thoreau, Thomas Cole, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, Wallace Nutting, William Least Heat Moon, William Cronon, Simon Schama.
Deep Time: The deeper "natural" history -- geology, archaeology, paleoclimatology, and paleoecology -- that set the stage for everything that followed, especially the early success of the livestock grazing economy, the Revolutionary-era appearance of concentrated stone during the Little Ice Age, and the late 19th century success of the hydropower mill industry.
Conservation Manifesto: A manifesto for conservation and management of stone walls as New England ruins and habitats. Increasingly these "signatures" of the rural New England landscape are being seen as a commons, to be held and shared by all.
Watershed Processes: An accessible primer on modern watershed and forestry processes (soils, hydrology, climate, forest ecology), especially for students new to the region.
Debunking Myths: Information for debunking intellectual myths involving the hardscrabble sterility of the New England soils, the machismo image of farm work, and the everlasting view of stone walls.
Interdisciplinary Example: An example of interdisciplinary thinking/writing connecting the hard sciences to the humanities. The book explains why something so obvious was virtually ignored by so many disciplines.

EXPLORING STONE WALLS

This book provides an opportunity for students to investigate their natural outdoor world. Learning to see the shapes, sizes, and locations will help them understand the landscape.

Earth Science: It can be used in conjuction with state geological maps to understand how three important agents -- bedrock, glaciation, human impact -- led to stone walls.

Ecology and Environmental Science : It can be used to see the woodland habitat more closely, namely the habitats on the stones, between them, and upon the local deserts we call stone walls. The stone walls also introduce microclimates and edges.

Geography: The appearance of stone walls and local landscape is not constant but varies at many scales. The regional mapping provides an example of using map criteria to make your own maps Link to Geography.

Taxonomy: It provides an easy-to use dichotomous key for classifying stone walls based on objective criteria. Link to Classification.