Exploratory Paper 2

Amanda Buttrum

Stevenson University
 The MDSPCA has represented itself well as a non-kill, highly successful animal

shelter adopting out over 3,500 animals a year ("Helping Animals in Baltimore", 2018).

What many people don’t know about the organization is that they provide informal

learning opportunities for communities and schools in a variety of ways. One of the most

popular programs the MDSPCA offers is an afterschool reading program to elementary

students ages 6-12. The program Pet Pals is conducted on Tuesday afternoons from 5-

6pm allowing students to come sit with the animals in the shelter and read them books.

The program encourages reading as well as developing advocacy and empathy for lonely

animals. The organization also offers facility tours, dog training and programming for

assemblies at schools. The MDSPCA also works to partner with other organizations and

communities to develop events that educate about animals and adoption.

After researching different delivery models that could apply to what the

MDSPCA does, I would classify their delivery model for informal learning as

Traditional Non-Profit Face-to-Face programming per Phil Hill (Hill, 2018). He

discusses the inclusion of other delivery methods to encompass all styles of learning in

his blog The Emerging Landscape of Educational Delivery Models. Phil Hill (2018)

states the following “What I believe we are seeing in 2011 and 2012 is a transition to an

educational system no longer dominated by traditional education and one or two

alternative models.” In the investigation of proper delivery models of the MDSPCA I

believe this classification makes the most sense.

 The informal learning experiences conducted by the MDSPCA are at the shelter

facility and sometimes conducted at schools or community meetings. In this model, a

variety of educational strategies are employed depending on the type of event. For

instance, students may use cooperative learning to create a poster for the organization to

use at an event. They also take advantage of having adorable fur babies to use for hands

on instructional strategies to encourage student advocacy of animals. The organization

also teams up with local schools and teachers to participate in the MDSPCA Art Show

fundraiser.

The delivery model in this case includes Cooperative Learning, Flipped Learning,

Modeling, Scaffolding, Independent Learning as well as Analysis of student work. The

program is set up to have students answer a list of questions by exploring the MDSPCA

website with a partner. During this unit there are multiple demonstrations and modeling

how to research, choose an animal, how to draw the animal, and best practices of each

material chosen. Students choose a picture of a real shelter animal given to the teacher by

the MDSPCA. Students create sketches of their animals and use their critique skills to

assess each other’s work before starting their final copy. Independently, students create

their picture and choose their materials. Once completed students have their artwork hung

in the art show to be sold to raise money for the MDSPCA.

The classroom fundraiser project is more of a formal education experience in

which learning outcomes are identified, students assess as well as the teacher based on
whether or not they succeeded. The program was co-developed by staff members of the

MDSPCA and a Baltimore County Art Teacher. In Chapter 6 of Surrounded by Science:

Learning Science in Informal Environments (Fenichel & Schweingruber, 2013) the

following statement supports this as a best practice of program development

“…key stakeholders in the informal learning experience, including representatives from

the institution or organization involved in designing it and members of the community it

is meant to serve, should be brought into the planning process” (p.105). This program

was created by all necessary people involved and has been wildly successful. Each year

the art show grows due to increased participation from Baltimore County Schools. The

learning outcomes are based on the Maryland Visual Arts standards and reflect

development appropriate concepts. My 5th grade students will receive a rubric for each

step of their process, have peer and personal check in’s and will be expected to complete

their artwork as well as write a statement about the MDSPCA and how their artwork is

being used to help animals.

When considering the different kinds of unique and informal learning the

MDSPCA offers the communities, the pros and cons vary. I can find no cons for the art

show program my students are involved in. It is well designed, offers a variety of

learning strategies, is evidence based with specific learner outcomes identified, but more

than anything, it gives my 5th grade students a sense of responsibility and ownership of

how they choose to help those who cannot help themselves, the shelter pets. Seeing

students weep reading stories on the MDSPCA website, sharing what they read with

friends, getting excited about choosing an animal to represent and the sheer pride they

have in themselves for doing something meaningful for someone else is priceless. I get
misty-eyed writing about it. This program is blended learning at it’s best! According to

the Authors (Powell et al., 2015) of Blending Learning: The Evolution of Online and

Face-to-Face Education from 2008-2015 blended learning offers the highly encouraged

method of integrated learning, written as follows:

…a formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through

online learning with some element of student control over time, place, path,

and/or pace and at least in part at a supervised brick-and-mortar location away

from home. The modalities along each student’s learning path within a course or

subject are connected to provide an integrated learning experience. (p. 5)

The pros of community events, school assemblies, and facility tours are that they

inform the public about the mission of the MDSPCA. Animals can be adopted out at

these kinds of events. It offers hands on learning as well as instructional learning. Often

times, it is a way to recruit more volunteers as well. The cons of this kind of informal

learning is that it is difficult to truly assess as there is little evidence after an assembly

unless you’re doing some questioning throughout to formatively assess. It becomes

increasingly difficult if you are advocating for MDSPCA at a larger event and people are

just passing through collecting information. The elementary reading program is a pro as it

encourages students to want to read and bond with shelter pets. However, there is not any

formal assessing of whether a child is becoming a stronger reader or not. Just having

students of this age and development reading on a regular basis outside of school does

not negatively affect them in anyway but it is the only small con I can see in an ocean full

of positive outcomes.
 References

Helping Animals in Baltimore. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.mdspca.org/

Powell, A., Watson, J., Staley, P., Patrick, S., Horn, M., & Fetzer, L. et al. (2015).

Blended Learning: The Evolution of Online and Face-to-Face Education from 2008-

2015. Promising Practices Of Blended And Online Learning, 5. Retrieved from

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED560788.pdf

Fenichel, M., & Schweingruber, H. (2013). Surrounded by science (p. 105).

Johanneshov: The National Academies press.

Hill, P. (2018). The Emerging Landscape of Educational Delivery Models. Retrieved

from https://mfeldstein.com/the-emerging-landscape-of-educational-delivery-models/