Project Wild

On Tuesday, September 7th we participated in Project Wild at Eisenhower Park.   Beforehand, I had no idea what we would be doing all day because 8 hours spent in a park seemed like a bit much to me.  Starting off the day I was a little worried because it had been storming all night and morning and it didn't look like it was going to stop anytime soon.  With all the rain and morning rush hour traffic, it took me about an hour to get to the park, which should have been just a ten minute drive!

 

When I finally arrived at the park, I ran through the rain to find everyone sitting around a large pavillion.  Luckily, instruction hadn't started on anything so I was able to quickly get my books and supplies and find a seat with a group already sitting down.  Just a few minutes later, the presentations began and we were told what we were going to do during the day, as well as what parts of our itinerary were going to be cut out because of the weather.

We began by going through and learning about all of the useful resources in our new Project Wild and Growing Up Wild curriculum and activity guides.  We did a little "hike through" the books, since the rain would not allow us to take an actual hike through the park that day.  I was VERY impressed with how detailed the books were and how simple, yet fun the activities were to teach children about the important of preserving wildlife and the environment.

After we did a few activities as a whole, we were informed that we would have to get in large groups and actually present and teach a lesson that we were assigned to from one of the books.  We were given about thirty minutes to prepare the lesson and figure out how we were going to teach it to the rest of the group.  This part of the day was most definitely my favorite because it allowed for a lot more interaction and moving around than anything we had done earlier. 

The activity my group was assigned to was named "How Many Bears Can Live in This Forest?".  It was a lesson in which students learn about what a limiting factor is and how these limiting factors affect animal populations in the wild.  For the activity, we set out various colors of little bear figurines in which each color represented a different type of food group  as well as different pounds in food for the bear.  We then set these bears down all over an empty picnic table and asked for volunteers from the audience to act as if they are the bears hunting for food.  Three of these "bears" had special circumstances, such as an injured leg or a mother bear who was required to get extra food for her cubs.  My volunteer was a blind bear, so she had to be blindfolded while I helped lead her to the food, very slowly.  In the end, the activity helped students realize that it is not always easy for wildlife to survive, and there are limiting factors that can affect the population of a particular species.

Overall, I would say that Project Wild was a great experience and I am thankful that I was given the opportunity to be a part of it.  I think it is a wonderful workshop that all future (and present) teachers should attend because I felt like I walked away with so many new resources that I will be able to use in my own classroom one day.