Connections

Thompson Island Outward Bound Education Center serves as Boston’s Island Classroom, the hub of youth education for the Boston Harbor Islands National Park Area. Young people from diverse backgrounds come together to increase academic proficiency and stretch beyond their own personal limitations. Serving more than 4,000 middle school students each year, the Connections program is the platform for what we provide to Boston’s young people who are most at risk and most in need.

Connections offers engaging, real-world learning experiences that challenge Boston’s youth and provide opportunities for them to learn in new ways. Developed in collaboration with the National Park Service, the Connections program enhances academic learning and social competence through in-school classroom activities that revolve around field experiences in the Harbor Islands and on Thompson Island in particular.

Through the Connections program, we aim to:

• increase student performance in Massachusetts curriculum standards for Math, Science and ELA
• increase student success in professional and vocational careers, including STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) based industries
• use place-based, hands-on activities that provide memorable and long-lasting learning experiences.
• immerse students in a variety of natural settings that fosters an appreciation of science and nature
• develop active and informed citizens ready to take responsibility for creating a more sustainable world

Our work involves consulting with the Boston area schools to modify existing field activities, create new ones, and develop extension activities for the classroom. Student participation can vary from a one-day field trip to Thompson Island to a two-day overnight expedition. All programs include classroom extensions regardless of the length and/or frequency of the field expeditions. The field experiences are targeted at topics where school assessments show the greatest need. Students tackle initiatives that are structured to instill confidence, motivation, collaboration, problem solving, leadership and a sense of wonder.

For an illustrated example of how the activities work click here.

One of the first windows to wonder is the natural world. Within the last few decades, the way children understand and experience the immediate world around them has changed drastically. Even as adolescents become more aware of global threats to the environment, their physical contact, their familiarity with the natural world is fading. The pristine natural beauty of Thompson Island offers an essential element to the success of Boston’s education reform movement. The benefits go beyond test scores. By helping our public schools incorporate standards-based outdoor education both in the classroom and in their own local National Park Area, we help students realize that school is a portal to the wider world.

Take a virtual visit to the island and watch the Connections program in operation:

For more information regarding the Connections program please contact
Paul Lamoureux at 617-830-5136 or email plamoureux@thompsonisland.org.