Teachers learn to put nature in the classroom

Talk about a big classroom.

The million acres of Glacier National Park came off the wall map and into real-life lesson plans for about 30 Flathead Valley educators last week during a daylong workshop led by Laura Law, the park's new education specialist.

The band of teachers-turned-students took to the lessons like a stonefly nymph to a clear, rocky stream bed.

"We usually take the kids down by the bridge," interpretive ranger Kim Redding opened her aquatics session, gesturing from her post on the shore of Lake McDonald toward the Camas Road bridge over McDonald Creek.

Redding was one of the specialists who gave Law a hand throughout the day by walking the teachers through a typical lesson their own students would get on a field trip to the park.

"We'll catch insects, they'll get a lecture on protecting the species," she explained, "and they'll get to see the beaver lodge there."

She turns that into an object lesson on natural adaptation.

"We ask them 'What would a beaver need to stay alive?'"

kkellogg 8/26/05 Redding passed around a beaver pelt as she discussed its water repellency. She showed the goggles that some lucky class volunteer will don to demonstrate a beaver's ability to see underwater, as well as a pair of fins for its webbed feet, a large cardboard paddle for its tail and a pair of big, goofy-looking Popsicle sticks fashioned into teeth.

A beavers' teeth never stop growing throughout its lifetime, she explained. So to keep them whittled down, it comes in handy to gnaw on trees and sticks for its dam- and lodge-building lifestyle.

"This is one of the few animals that can change its own habitat to suit its own needs," Redding said. In the process, she added, the beaver creates habitat for other animals to move in.

Redding's station was just one demonstration of the marvels that students - from the youngest elementary-age children through graduating seniors - will head for when they hop the school bus for Glacier.

Law created the for-credit teacher workshop in response to requests for a way to work the park into school curricula during fall and early spring.

School-year trips into the park typically have been

limited by the park's seasons.

Now Law, an experienced school teacher, is working to expand the options.

She invited a team of natural-resource leaders from Glacier Park and other agencies to show connections available to teachers - representatives of the park's native plant nursery, Glacier Institute, Flathead National Forest and Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center.

Each explained outreach opportunities and the interwoven services they offer to educate school children and the public.

Matt Graves, chief interpreter for the park, discovered that, of the group of about 45, only four were born and reared in this area.

"The rest moved here for many reasons. What makes this place special and unique?" he asked, eliciting more than a dozen qualities including outdoor recreation, its first-in-the-world International Peace Park and its "incredibly diverse landscape and wildlife."

Law's own inner teacher sparkled as she showed participants what their students would experience on a visit to the park, and creative ways to drive home their lessons.

To demonstrate the food chain during her introductory session at the Apgar Amphitheater, she singled out the person who received the "sun" card at check-in that morning. Weaving in vocabulary such as "photosynthesis," she found someone whose card pictured a plant that drew energy from the sun. Next came a pika, which ate the plant. At the top of the heap was the mountain lion that gobbled the pika.

Each successive card-holder grabbed onto the strand of yarn she passed among them until they realized they had formed a food chain.

Throughout the day, learning by doing was key to the workshop's success.

A puppet show in Discovery Cabin's Huckleberry Theater, a Punch-and-Judy style stage, used a succession of Glacier National Park critters to teach Gabby the Hiker how to respect and protect their natural home.

To delineate small groups for the rest of the day, Law devised a word-match game that teaches two-part names for insects, animals, plants and trees.

Once paired up, they clustered into groups and headed back outside for activities led by the interpretive rangers.

Debby Mensch led a game of Bull Trout, Lake Trout. The taglike game burns off energy that youngsters build up during the bus ride, and demonstrates how non-native lake trout can out-compete threatened bull trout. There's a similar game for wolves and deer.

Bill Schustrom guided a stream-side activity at the head of McDonald Creek. Half the group measured water velocity while the other half checked stream temperature. They compared their data with a chart predicting insects, fish and algae levels found in those conditions.

Lunch became a lesson in organization and cleanup, with every student and teacher expected to lend a hand.

After lunch, Schustrom gathered everyone inside the Apgar Visitor Center around a three-dimensional table map of the Glacier region. He used a stack of laminated cards to demonstrate geologic forces. He prompted teachers to figure out what was unique, tossing cards on the map to signify scenery, wilderness, culture and other factors.

Back inside Discovery Cabin, Law solicited comments to help improve the five learning stations. There, teachers touched, saw and read about ungulate "head gear," fur, wildlife communities and Glacier's rocks - all with an eye for how it would work with students.

Just outside the cabin, Melissa Smith let each group toss a hula-hoop into the underbrush to define the boundaries for its micro-habitat study. Teachers surveyed that column, reaching from the ground up to the tree tops, for the four elements necessary in any habitat - food, water, shelter and space.

Nearby, Debbie Page-O'Connell, a volunteer and veteran teacher, led a study of coniferous trees by way of a dichotomous identification key.

At the end of the day, educators left with a broadened view of what Law and her crew can provide in the way of education about Glacier's natural and cultural resources.

They had a good idea of how to adapt lessons to just about any age group.

They got a peek into trunks of educational materials that they can check out for use in their classrooms.

And - thanks in part to the Rock Cycle Song, a catchy little round defining sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks, sung to the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" - they left with smiles on their faces and great ideas for their classes.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com.