![]() “They definitely learn from the hands-on part,” she said.Ĭo-instructors Debbie Hackman, executive director of the Jackson County Recycling District, and Bernie Bryant, an environmental educator for the Seymour Department of Public Works, took that to heart. Macey Stuckwisch with a Brownstown Elementary School class said a strength of the program is its interactive nature. “Anything that gets them outside gets them excited,” Brewer said. Medora teacher Carrie Brewer said her class has been studying sustainable food sources, and she tipped the kids off that they would hear about animals and wetlands. #SOMETHING IN THE AIR BUTTERFLY PLACE CARDS HOW TO#Teachers provide a heads-up on what to expect and how to behave for the third-graders. While students can go to the water fountain if thirsty, raccoons and other wild critters need other sources, Beckort said. To illustrate, Beckort whipped out sponges for youngsters to hold because they can hold liquids for considerable time. ![]() It can be anything that holds water in nature.” Such as a river or a lake. Wetlands, Beckort said, “hold water for a long time. Richard Beckort with Purdue Extension Jackson County had the challenging task of making clear the importance of wetlands. To be certified as a sustainable tree, Derringer said there are “1,000 pages of rules.” That reading level may be over the heads of the third-graders. It may be college graduates have trouble comprehending rules on who can legally cut down a tree in Indiana. She introduced the concept of being sustainable even if the kids could barely pronounce it. “There are products where it gives you the flavor to make it taste sweet,” she said.ĭerringer said it is clearly necessary to cut down some trees to make things, but it is not good to cut down too many. Tree byproducts go into lipstick and makeup, too. “Do you know you’re eating a tree?” she said. Some were items thought of as being at all dependent on wood. Some were obvious, such as a little baseball bat, as was her listing of home building and furniture making. ![]() Their hands shot into the air when she asked, “How many of you think it’s bad to cut down trees?”ĭerringer covered the science of how trees produce oxygen but also dipped into a bag of tricks almost like a magician to show products containing wood from trees. They picked up designated cards representing favorite foods with their “paws.” If an otter did not gather 20 points worth, Stanley had a sobering message – they would not survive.Īt the tree station, Sandy Derringer, a park ranger at Big Oaks National Wildlife Refuge in Madison, seemed to be speaking to the youthful converted. In one exercise, the children imitated otters foraging for food. When students were asked if they knew what habitat was, one little girl piped up with, “It’s a place where an animal lives.” Bingo. The real lesson of the wildlife stop centered around habitat. ![]() ![]() When Stanley requested suggestions on how people could do more to help the butterflies, one girl said, “You can reduce the use of bug spray.” Stanley called that an excellent idea. “Some years, we see a lot of them, and some years, we don’t see many,” she said. The students may have been too young to process the recent public information about the decline by millions of the monarch butterfly, but Stanley touched on that. One Medora student, Korbin Brock, said he had an affinity for slithery things. “They (kids) haven’t learned to be afraid of them.” Stanley, who ran the wildlife station, said the other reaction would likely have proven true for adults. More than 300 third-graders were included, though in pre-COVID-19 days, the program hosted 600-some students, Ault said.Īlthough others may be surprised by the popularity of the species, thinking kids may go “Eew,” Muscatatuck Park Ranger Donna Stanley has learned youngsters of this age, around 8, by a great majority wave hands in the air energetically when asked, “Who likes snakes?” Rotating through five stations, the program piqued the enthusiasm of the youngsters, who were followed in another session by students from Seymour-Jackson Elementary School, Sandy Creek Christian Academy, St. Outdoors in the sun instead of indoors in a classroom. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |