Innovation, Artificial Intelligence, and … Maple Syruping: How LIFToFFS Learning Cooperative is Supporting Rural Wisconsin School Districts

Around two years ago, several rural superintendents across western Wisconsin were looking for support around both AI and solving their teacher shortages, and came to Cooperative Educational Service Agency (CESA) looking for support. CESA 4, one of Wisconsin’s 12 non-profit, regional offices, provides a platform for cooperation among districts, offers regional support and solutions that can be context dependent, and innumerable other opportunities for teachers, principals, and superintendents.

What started as listening to districts turned into the Learning Innovations For the Teaching of Future-Focused Students, or LIFToFFS Learning Collaborative, led by CESA 4 staff. 18 months into existence, 15 rural schools participate in the collaborative, including many outside of CESA 4’s direct service area. LIFToFFS began with a question, ‘what should a future-proof classroom look like?’ and seeks to empower teachers to utilize AI technology to reduce their non-teaching burdens and maximize engagement. LIFToFFS centers around the Four Core Experiences: personalized learning, durable skills, authentic inquiry, and global readiness.

Christy Tainter, Director of Academic and Career Planning for CESA 4 and one of the core members of the LIFToFFS team, emphasizes that while LIFToFFS provides resources, coaching, and a professional learning community, the implementation of these ideas will vary based on each district’s unique rural context: “All of our districts have that same vision when it comes to LIFToFFS, but how they actually bring it to life is going to look different based on who they are and the communities they serve.”

One example of how LIFToFFS has taken flight in Birchwood School is through collaboration with Get Out There, an outdoor education program that provides students with opportunities to safely and responsibly explore the outdoors. Get Out There began with the revitalization of a school forest program, bringing students outside of the classroom for outdoor experiences a few times a year, under the leadership of David Lorentz and Eric Rademaker.

Today, David and Eric are joined by Kevin Freitag and other teachers as leaders of a flourishing outdoor program. If integrating an AI-inspired curricular initiative seems like an odd fit with an outdoors-focused program, David shared that initial skepticism: “To be honest, I was a little bit cynical at first– ‘oh, more screen time.’ But LIFToFFS utilizes more targeted use of technology to minimize the time behind a computer and maximize the actual experience, and I was like, ‘oh, I buy into this!’”

AI has helped teachers integrate seasonally-derived experiences that students engage with through Get Out There–such as maple syruping–and connect it to standards and unit plans. For David, a middle school social studies and science teacher, syruping can connect to science, chemistry, civics, social studies/history, and math. Students are able to naturally gravitate to various elements of the production process, tailoring learning to their interests and curiosity. Get Out There leadership brings in community members to assist with the sap boils, exposing the students to career opportunities in the area and opening their eyes to future employment. Kevin describes that “we talk a lot about durable skills, employability skills, but also being good citizens, that are well-acquainted with the resources and opportunities around your area. I think it’s super important for students leaving Birchwood Schools to be familiar with the place that they live.”

In Kevin’s classroom, where he teaches high school math, he finds that bringing students out of the classroom inspires a marked change in engagement and interest in the subject, particularly when mathematics can be applied to outdoors-based career opportunities. “When I’m trying to teach pre-calculus and factoring quadratic equations, it’s really hard to get kids to buy in. But when I’m teaching outdoor math– when I’m teaching trigonometry and geometry through the lens of land surveying and forestry, kids are just naturally more engaged because we’re up, we’re moving, and we are outside.”

Both Kevin and David reflect that working with LIFToFFs has given staff throughout the district common language and mindsets, which has helped Get Out There move from a standalone club to a program deeply integrated across grade-levels and curriculum. For Kevin, “that connection to curriculum has been something that our team and administration have been encouraging us to do more and more of, and we’ve been a lot more intentional about this year and last year. [We are] talking with teachers at all grade levels and saying “what is it that you’re doing in the classroom that we can connect this to?”

Christy notes that CESA 4 does not come in with a curriculum and install it, but rather works with districts to identify and meet gaps while accentuating strengths: “They were already doing the work—we just helped streamline it so the learning could be more intentional for students, staff, and the community. What’s exciting is seeing how those disciplinary standards connect not only to the Get Out There program but also across subjects, especially in David’s science and social studies classroom, and we’re excited to see that continue to expand into other classrooms.

Kevin, David, and the rest of their team have hopes to spread their passion for interweaving outdoor experiences and education beyond Birchwood’s borders. They have created a non-profit, and are working to pilot Get Out There programs at other schools. Much like CESA 4’s work with LIFToFFS, school districts have an appetite for innovations and projects that engage students, revitalize teachers, and grow the impact that their district can have on their local community. For Kevin, learning through the local community is the only way to learn: “We’re making the students’ learning really authentic, and really place-based. Where you live frames the way that you learn.”