Outstanding in the Field Curricula

Mat Bevel Company is developing a new educational program called “Outstanding in the Field” that leverages local expert’s knowledge to teach students K-12 about place-based occupations and associated fields of study. 

The program uses the inspiring work of Mat Bevel Company President Ned Schaper, his Museum Of Kinetic Art, Surrealistic Pop Science Theater, School of Intuition and Bevelvision Productions—and the knowledge of 8 to 10 local subject matter experts.

Local experts from Patagonia, Arizona will be filmed interacting with inspiring characters and mechanical puppets from the artist’s magical world of Beveldom, a “lost land of found objects” with host Mat Bevel. Students in grades K-12 will learn in an engaging way from experts about seed-banking, crop diversity, restoring lands and food chains, farming, nutrition, resource extraction and mining.

Teachers and leaders from Patagonia Public Schools, Patagonia Montessori School, Patagonia Youth Center, Patagonia Arts Association in conjunction with Mat Bevel Company will develop hands-on curricula and workshops to complement ‘Outstanding in the Field” video content. 

Animation, graphics, music and poems will be added to develop the final “Outstanding in the Field” program.

This initial “Outstanding in the Field” program will address a specific community challenge for Patagonia, Arizona. The community has a high concentration of natural and human resources. Median age is 59.8. Median home cost is $246,900. Median household income is 56% lower than Arizona. A high percentage of students live below the poverty level. Many will leave the community never to return.

“Outstanding in the Field” aims to reverse this trend. A baseline qualitative survey will measure students’ attitudes and aptitudes before and after the workshop during the 2-year project.

For More Information Contact: Paula Schaper, Mat Bevel Company, 520-604-6273, pschaper@matbevelcompany.org, www.matbevelcompany.org.