Afton students hiking up the slope in search of hiding spots during a game of camouflage.
Mr. Potato Chip - nature art by Afton seventh graders
Afton seventh graders scrabbling up the slope - demonstration was meant to show that fire travels faster up a slope than on a flat surface.One hundred seventh graders gathered around a fire truck.
Duane, a forest service fire fighter demonstrating how to use the fire tent.
This week my track has been teaching fire ecology to seventh graders in Afton. We have three days with each group of students (two in the classroom and one field day.)
On Tuesday morning, field day, we arrived at the burn site with over 100 students in tow. They piled out of the buses with enormous lunch coolers, math textbooks, no water bottles, and tons of energy. All of this would not have been so worrisome if our site had not been located on the side of steep hill.
We split into groups and hauled the students up the hill (coolers and textbooks included) followed close behind by chaperons carrying coolers of water which were strategically placed at various intervals up the trail.
Jamie and I spent the day putting on puppet shows, playing full body rocks, paper, scissor, doing succession games, and teaching the way in which heat energy travels - this all occurred with thirty seventh grade students on a steep slope. It made the day that much more exciting.
Teaching fire ecology at this site has made me realize the importance of flexibility and the environmental challenges that comes with field education. We were able to go back to the same site on Thursday with another hundred seventh graders and revise our lessons, learning from Tuesday's challenges.
No comments:
Post a Comment