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"Every
Teacher in the Woods"
By:
Ashley
George, Journalism major, Valdosta State University
It's time for little Timmy to go
back outside, at least that's what facilitators of
environmental education think.
"Every Student Learns Outside"
is an initiative of
Project Learning Tree. Project Learning Tree's goal is for kids to
learn "how to think, and not what to think, about
environmental issues," through fun, hands-on, outdoor
activities, and the same premise is true for
Project WILD and
Project WET. The 3rd annual Teacher Conservation Workshop (TCW) was a
five-day experience that showed teachers how to bring these
ideas from environmental education back to their students. It
demonstrated how these interdisciplinary programs could help
students whether they're learning science, language arts,
math, social studies, or any other topics. This workshop
provided teachers a box full of teaching materials and
activities to take back to their classrooms to use with their
students. In addition to materials, the participants gained
confidence in teaching PLT, WILD, and WET materials through
experiential learning activities.
 The TCW was held at the Charlie
Elliott Wildlife Center in Mansfield, which served as the home
base for daily excursions off site. One of the excursions was
to Plum Creek's completed clear-cut site and active harvesting
site. At the clear-cut, Rich Haddock, Darrell Kauffman, and
Scott Weaver explained forest management, and the methods they
use to grow and harvest the trees. The bare looking land with
stacks of wood piled here and there began to take a different
form as the professional foresters described what was actually
taking place. Looking down, the teachers began to see small
seedlings growing among the grass and logging residue. "It
just looked like chaos at first," said Trennia Johnson, a
teacher at Crossroads Baptist School in Valdosta, "but then
[as the forest management practice was explained] I began to
see the plan." At the active harvesting site, the teachers
watched as the feller buncher cut down the trees, the skidder
brought the trees to the loading deck, and the loader removed
the branches and tops and separated the logs based on product
class before loading the log truck. One teacher commented
about the treetops, saying before she came she just thought
they were making a big mess, but she learned that the treetops
were left at the site to return organic material to the soil.
One PLT activity they took part in called "Every Tree for
Itself" reinforced what they learned at Plum Creek. This
hands-on activity uses poker chips in a survival game that
demonstrates competition between trees, and how the position
and place of a tree affects its' growth and survival.
Another excursion was to the
Georgia Forestry Commission's Flint River Nursery to see the
process of growing tree seedlings. At the nursery, the
teachers saw how the different types of pine trees and
hardwood trees looked when they are seedlings. They also
learned about planting methods and the grafting process. The
group visited several tree farms including Big K Farm,
Charlane Plantation, and Gully Branch. At Big K Farm (owned by
John Smoltz, Ryan Klesko, and Richard Spear), the consultant
Lynn Hooven, said, "Trees are just like any crop, they're just
long term." He went on to explain how everything they do at
the farm not only benefits the trees, but also the wildlife
and forest plants too. Big K Farm's wildlife and fisheries
biologists talked about the different types of fauna that
benefit from the tree farm. At Charlane Plantation (owned by
Chuck and Rose Lane Leavell), the manager, Mike Hattaway,
showed them an incubator where he raises quail chicks, and
talked about how forest management can affect wildlife
ecology. At Gully Branch, the owners, Earl and Wanda Barrs,
showed the teacher's
food plots and different kinds
of grasses that they are growing to enhance wildlife habitat.
They explained that the management of Gully Branch encourages
a diversity of life. "We're trying to work with the land",
said Earl Barrs, "not against it." Beside the lake at Big K
Farm, they took part in a Project WET activity called "Sum of
the Parts". In this activity, each teacher was instructed that
they own a piece of land by a river, and were asked to draw
what their dream home would be if they had unlimited
resources. This activity demonstrated how what they built
affected not only their part of the river, but the entire
river from the headwaters to the ocean.
At the Brender Demonstration
Forest, John McGuire with the Longleaf Alliance presented a
talk about longleaf pine trees. He informed the group that the
longleaf pine ecosystem has declined over the last 150 years.
He also explained that prescribed burning was essential to not
only the survival of the longleaf pines, but to many other
species that depend on fire to open up the forest. The
teachers learned more about
the effects of fire through a PLT
activity called "Living With Fire". Everyone discussed what
caused the wildfires in South Georgia and how that had
affected those communities. This activity appealed to many of
the teachers because it gave them a better perspective about
the fires. "To know the importance of burning," said Bruce
Harris, a teacher at Wayne County High School in Jesup, "and
to find out that if the companies were able to use that
process, the fires might not have been as bad as they were."
The teachers took part in a
Project WILD activity called "Adaptation Artistry" where they
created their own imaginary animal and gave that animal some
adaptations to live in specific habitats. Some of the
creatures created included a NASCAR fish that was built for
speed, and a night pouch bird that carried its eggs in a
pouch. The long leaf pine forest showed many good examples of
animal adaptations, such as the Red Cockaded Woodpecker
needing live pine trees for nest cavities. It is a creative,
fun way to show students the interconnection of animals and
their environment.
To show the completion of the
cycle of growing trees that exists within the forest products
industry, the teachers went to Georgia-Pacific's
sawmill and Weyerhaeuser's
cellulose fiber mill. They watched a log change and assemble
into plywood at the plywood mill. The teachers saw the paper
drying process and learned about the chemicals that are used
and reused in the mill at Weyerhaeuser. "I didn't understand
industry very well," said Stephanie Westmoreland, a Naturalist
at Reynolds Plantation in Greensboro, "they really were trying
to conserve and reuse products [in the production]." To
demonstrate the full process of the paper mill, the teachers
participated in a Project Learning Tree activity called "Make
Your Own Paper." This activity was a mini re-creation of what
went on at a paper mill that would let students create their
very own piece of paper.
This workshop opened many
teachers' eyes to forest management, and conservation
practices, and it showed them how they are connected to the
land and how they can actively participate in the sustainable
use of natural resources. "On my land, I was just going to
sell it and have them turn it into concrete," said Patrice
Matchett, a teacher at PLC Alternative School in Valdosta,
"but now that I've been to this workshop I'm going to keep it
because I know I can do something to it to make it beautiful."
The workshop also gave teachers countless resources to use to
bring this knowledge back to their students. "We're developing
a bookless curriculum," said Amanda Jones, a teacher at
Southeast High School in Dalton, "all the labs, everything we
did were exactly what I needed." The best part is they did it
in a fun, hands-on way. Kerri Schmitt, a teacher at Creekview
High School in Canton, said, "I teach special education, and
for the children to learn it must be hands on. It's just given
us a lot
of great things to use." This workshop was not only a great
experience for the teachers that participated, but a great
benefit to the students that will gain from their teaching and
the forests that will thrive from their actions. "I'll use
this in the classroom," said Leslee Lampert, a teacher at
Newbern Middle School in Valdosta, "because I know my students
are just as blind as I was."
Click here to download the 2008 TCW Application
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