SCHOOL PROGRAMS
Each
spring festival committee member Tom Dale (retired KCC science
instructor and education director of The Gahagan Nature
Preserve) visits K-8 schools in and around the college’s
district. He captivates youngsters of all ages with his nature
presentations and puppet shows that cover a wide variety of
topics from “Big Cats” to “The Wonder of Weasels” and lessons
about the Kirtland’s warbler and the jack pine ecosystem. He
typically sees four- to five-thousand students each spring and
is the force behind the Kirtland’s Warbler Wildlife Festival
Young Artists Calendar.
Schools visited include:
- Mio Elementary and Middle School
- Fairview Elementary and Middle School
- Hale Elementary and Middle School
- Rose City Elementary and Middle School
- West Branch Surline Elementary
- St Joseph Elementary and Middle School
- Ogemaw Hills Christian School
- St. Helen Elementary
- Roscommon Elementary and Middle School
- Houghton Lake Collins Elementary and Middle School
- Our-Lady of the Lake School
- Grayling Elementary and AuSable Primary School
- Crawford School
The following is an article published in the 2009 Kirtland's Warbler Wildlife Festival Newspaper.
Visits give students closer look at wildlife
By Jerry Nunn
ROSCOMMON – College educators Tom Dale and Matt Murray have
found a new calling - traipsing in and out of the elementary and
middle school classrooms of the Crawford, Ogemaw, Oscoda and
Roscommon Intermediate School District where the pair take turns
presenting the Visiting Naturalist Program.
As big time supporters of conservation’s cause, new assignments in primary classrooms suites the pair just fine.
“These kids are terrific,” said Dale. “You should see them
crowd the front row. In all the years I’ve been doing this, I
don’t think I’ve ever had a kid not pay attention.”
This year’s topic? Michigan Canines, a subject covering red and grey fox, coyotes and wolves, and by the time the pair are done with their annual program all 5,534 kids in six local school districts will know plenty more about the state’s wild native dogs.
Among the visual aides the pair brings to the classroom are hides and skulls, paw impressions and rubber likenesses of scat, all tools that biologists find useful in the field. Combined with charts, drawings, photographs and a puppet show, the hands-on portion of the presentation gives students a new awareness of wild canines.
Funded in large part by Kirtland Community College, the presentation could not exist without help from agencies and organizations such as the state Department of Natural Resources and the National Wildlife Federation. Topics of past presentations have included bears, weasels and big cats and this year’s presentation includes a full-sized model skull of a prehistoric dire wolf.
“Kids like getting out of the classroom and doing different stuff,” said Murray, noting he and Dale take pride in hiding smaller lessons within the larger topic. “You’ll hear me talk about scientific names, so they get to learn about that. And when I talk about the dire wolf, I’ll talk about the La Brea Tar Pits, so there is some history in there and I usually throw Mesopotamia in somewhere, too. I show them a bar graph so I talk about different kinds of graphs. And before we’re done they get a little geography as well.”
For Tom Dale, a retired science instructor from Kirtland Community College and director of Marguerite Gahagan Nature Preserve in Roscommon, as well as a member of the Gerrish-Higgins School board, teaching is second nature.
Those who know Dale say he receives as much or more enjoyment from his presentations than the students.
“It is not many college instructors who can handle 5-year-olds but Tom Dale does,” said Jennifer Oaks, kindergarten teacher at Roscommon Elementary School, where the pair made a presentation last week. “The kids just love it.”
It is not just the youngsters who lend the guest educators
their ears, eyes and inquisitive minds, either. Grade school
teachers sit enthralled with the fast-paced presentations, too,
and Dale’s contributions go well beyond education and the
Visiting Naturalist Program.
“He was an awesome instructor out at the college and he is great with this,” said Michele Milne, a second-grade teacher at Roscommon who sits on Gahagan’s board of directors. “You won’t find anyone who works harder. The pay he gets for all the things he does? In essence he is a paid volunteer but still, if someone has an idea, he is like, ‘Yes, I think we can do that.’ You look at that man and ask ‘How does he do it all?’ It blows my mind the things he does and he doesn’t even think twice about it.”
Now, with Murray on his team for the first time this year, Dale has had his burden lightened. While Dale gives Murray exemplary grades for the new perspectives and energy he brings to the team, Murray, a part-time math instructor at Kirtland Community College, is no stranger to education, either.
Murray joins the program through AmeriCorp, on a one-year, renewable sponsorship of the conservation organization Huron Pines.
And while his job working with Dale and the Gahagan Nature Preserve is now official, Murray has been a long-time volunteer.
In addition to the Visiting Naturalist Program which Dale and Murray deliver, as well as frequent field trips the Nature Preserve hosts for area schools, Gahagan is also the local sponsor of the ELF Program - Environmental Learning for the Future - an educational program aimed at primary schools and delivered by parent volunteers.
“Matt taught the ELF Program as a volunteer for five years. Now he is training our parent volunteers so he brings a new prospective,” said Dale.
Yet, as fast as Dale became dependant on Murray to help
deliver the in-school educational programs, it is at the Gahagan
Nature Preserve where Murray’s contributions will really pay
off, according to Dale.
With a “two-fold mission to educate and preserve habitat,” as well as to “inform people about nature and conservation,” officials at the 60-acre Marguerite Gahagan Nature Preserve have broadened their efforts in recent years, paving trails to make them accessible, holding events to raise awareness and adding programs to educate the public.
Now, with Murray’s help, Dale hopes those efforts can increase and Gahagan Nature Preserve plans to hold classes on planting to attract birds, orienteering, geo-caching and other areas of interest this summer.
With proven success in the schools behind them - both grade school and college - the pair are a long way toward reaching those goals.
“The organization truly wants to reach all ages,” Dale said. “That’s what we hope to do. We have big plans to add programs and make improvements this summer. Matt will surely help with that. We are lucky to have him.”
- Jerry Nunn is a former staff writer for The Bay City Times, which graciously allowed the KWWF to reprint this story.
© 2009 Kirtland's Warbler Wildlife Festival