Welcome to the Best (And Most Different) Class You May Ever Take

Welcome to the best (and most different) class you may ever take.

Environmental Education:

1. It’s about leadership

2. It’s about learning how to think (critically, for yourself, problem solving)

3. It’s about learning native flora (plants) and fauna (animals) along with

a. Ecology

b. Human population issues

c. Evolution/Sexual Selection

d. Energy

e. Reading a thought provoking book, Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

We will begin the year learning how to identify the most common plants in the SMESL – this serves two purposes. The first purpose is to be prepared to lead and teach grade school kids and the second is to prepare for the 2013 regional Eco- Meet held at Ernie Miller Nature Center on Wednesday, October 30th. The top twelve scoring students on a test given at the beginning of October will qualify. Ten minutes per day studying the material covered in class is the minimum amount of time necessary for academic success. There will not be other “homework” assigned. Just study your plants from your notes and web backpack. Study your Kansas Mammals, Shortgrass Prairie and Scavenger Hunt on Moodle. To get to moodle go to the SMSD homepage and select “students” and then “student resources”. Moodle is one of the student resources. Click on moodle and from there simply input your student number, the password is “smsd”.

Great things happen every year in Environmental Education. Hope you are looking forward to a fantastic year. “Example is not the main thing influencing others, it’s the only thing.” -Albert Schweitzer

(Important Dates on Back of Sheet)

Monday, August 19 – Practice Test Mammals slides 1-49 (twenty questions) Tuesday, August 20 – Practice Tree I.D. Test Block, August 21, 22 – Tree I.D. Test Friday, August 23 – Mammal Test #1 slides 1-102 emph. 50-102 (thirty questions) Block, August 28, 29 – Plant I.D. Test Friday, August 30 – Mammal Test #2 slides 1-131 emph. 103-131 (thirty questions) Friday, September 6 – Shortgrass Test #1 slides 1-151 (thirty questions) Friday, September 13 – Shortgrass Test #2 slides 1-256 emph. 152-256 (thirty questions) Friday, September 20 – Shortgrass Test #3 slides 1-323 emph. 257-323 (thirty questions) Friday, September 27 – Scavenger Hunt Test slides 1-49 (thirty questions) Block, October 2, 3 – Ecomeet Qualifying Test –Mammals, Shortgrass and Scavenger Hunt (seventy-five questions – 30 mammal, 30 shortgrass and 15 scavenger hunt) Second Week of October – Our “first” grade school tours Wednesday, October 30 – Regional Ecomeet held at Ernie Miller Nature Center If you qualify for the Ernie Miller Regional and want to compete you will need to come to several “practices” in order to prepare for both the scavenger hunt and skit. Plan on meeting at Ernie Miller on Saturday, October 26th at 1:00 pm (at the shelter) and Tuesday October 29th after school – for about 2 hours each outing. Also, plan on meeting before school and during seminar and especially on our day off for conferences (Friday, October 25th) to practice your team skit. For those that qualify (1st, 2nd or 3rd place teams at regional or 1st and 2nd place individuals on both the Mammal focus test and the Shortgrass habitat test) Thursday, November 7th – State Ecomeet – Hesston (just north of Newton)

During November, December, January and February we learn about Environmental Science

Grade School kids come back for the tours right after spring break until the first week in May. *The top twelve scores will qualify to compete at the regional ecomeet. ****All of the above dates subject to change****