Director of the Middle School Susan Atkinson
said, “I am thrilled with the program that Ms.
Jamieson helped the seventh-grade team redesign
for Community Week,” she said. “The hands-on
experiences helped the students gain a deeper
understanding of how all organisms work together
to support a bigger ecosystem, as well as how to be
good stewards.”
Ms. Jamieson said that seeing thank-you notes
from seventh-grade students (like the one from
Ethan Dumeer included on page 19) warmed her
heart and left her even more inspired to continue
the relationship with the river and those who take
care of it. “We are The Steward School, and learning
stewardship fits in really well in the mission to help
a lot of amazing people in Richmond,” she said.
When it comes to experiential learning out in the
Richmond community, one of the most established
curriculum units at Steward is the fourth grade’s
participation at VCU’s Market Day, an annual event
during which 1,800 students from the Richmond
area take over the entire floor of the Siegel Center
with products for sale that they’ve designed and
created themselves. Fourth-grade teacher Chris
Tickle has been running his economic enrichment
program, the Mini Economy, at Steward for 13 years.
Market Day is the culminating activity in March, and
something the fourth-graders prepare for all year.
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The Colonnade
From September to March, Mr. Tickle’s students
learn the basics of economics, create their own
monetary system, and each design and price their
own products to sell. In February, Mr. Tickle holds a
trial-run Market Day at Steward, and each student
starts with the same amount of “money” in the
currency they created as a group. They all buy and
sell products to and from one another, but the goal
is to end up with a profit. “They have to learn how
to price their product exactly right,” Mr. Tickle said.
Market Day at Steward is a warm-up for the big
event at VCU in March. “The kids who had a hot
product at Steward’s Market Day usually make the
same thing,” Mr. Tickle said. “They may invite other
students to come help them so that they can make
more. The kids whose products weren’t as successful
may decide to do something entirely different or
join one of the students whose product sold better.”
When Market Day arrives, appraisers from
Richmond’s business community walk around
looking for students with outstanding products or
marketing. At the end of Market Day, those students
may receive awards. But Mini Economy isn’t over
quite yet for Steward’s fourth-graders. Those
students who saved or had money left over are able
to purchase or bid on special experiences offered by
Steward’s faculty. Big-ticket items include baking
“Death-by-Chocolate” brownies with Lower School
Academic Dean Becky Groves, a tour of the Robins
Theatre to see the fly space and catwalks with
technical theatre teacher Ryan Gallagher, and off-
campus lunch with Head of School Dan Frank.
Mr. Tickle is passionate about encouraging financial
literacy at an early age, and believes that the
experiential aspect of Mini Economy and Market
Day is vital. “It’s not just reading and doing a
worksheet,” he said. “You’re actually creating a
product, managing a limited budget, and trying to
make a profit. We still include a lot of literature
in my lessons, but when it comes down to it, the
students are taking those lessons and putting that
knowledge into their product.”
EVALUATING EXPERIENTIAL
LEARNING PROJECTS
One of the biggest questions that comes up
when implementing experiential education in
a curriculum in a practical way is: How should
students be evaluated? As Middle School teacher
Corbin Orgain '96 mentions when discussing
her own summer internship on the next page,
experiential lessons and projects must be evaluated
differently from traditional classroom assignments.
Several teachers at Steward had interesting takes
when it came to this question, but all agreed that
the evaluation method came about naturally.