News Detail
Focus on Field Studies
Hockaday’s First Grade Field Studies is an interdisciplinary class that combines art, science, writing, and math.
Girls spend most of their class period outside, observing nature and recording their findings in journals. Taught by Emily Dutcher, this class reimagines what it means to engage young learners through hands-on, interdisciplinary exploration. "I want this class to stimulate the whole learner," she said. "I believe in 360-degree learning—learning that synthesizes everything else our girls are doing in their other classrooms. Nature provides an engaging, hands-on backdrop for them to begin making meaningful connections between their learning and the real world."
The class explores the world around them through projects such as turning food waste into natural dyes for their weaving projects, partnering with Upper School’s AP Science to map the Blackland Prairie area on campus, and harvesting honey from Hockaday's campus beehive. This semester, they are making a catalog of native prairie trees on campus, using math concepts to organize and compare them, and learning about botanist and photographer Anna Atkins and her cyanotype process as a way to document their findings.
This year, Dutcher is working with Dr. Sarah Kucker and researchers from SMU's KID (Kids in Development) Lab to better understand how this non-traditional approach to learning supports Lower School outcomes like wonder, collaboration, resilience, and agency. “I believe that giving students access to this type of learning will make them better thinkers and learners overall,” Dutcher said. “My goal with SMU is to gather data that supports this theory so we can continue providing the best and most innovative ways to teach our students.”
The Hockaday School
Within the private school community, The Hockaday School is an independent college-preparatory day school for girls from grades PK–12 located in Dallas, Texas. Students realize their limitless potential through challenging academic curricula, arts, athletics, and extracurricular programs so that they are inspired to lead lives of purpose and impact.
The Hockaday School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, ethnicity, creed, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or any other status protected by applicable law in the administration of its educational, admissions, financial aid, athletic, and other policies and programs.
The Hockaday School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, ethnicity, creed, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or any other status protected by applicable law in the administration of its educational, admissions, financial aid, athletic, and other policies and programs.