Dr. Randy Champeau Associate Professor Of
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APPROVED BY: Dr. Randy Champeau Associate Professor of Environmental Education THE DEVELOP:rvlENT AND Il\1PLE:rv1ENTATION OF A PRAIRIE RESTORATION SITE TO BE USED AS AN OUTDOOR TEACHING FACILITY FOR THE STEVENS POINT AREA CATHOLIC SCHOOLS by Laura A. Barnett A Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree MASTER OF SCIENCE . Natural Resources - Environmental Education for Elementary and Secondary Teachers UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN Stevens Point, Wisconsin December, 1997 ABSTRACT This paper documents the development of an outdoor classroom for the Stevens Point Area Catholic Schools. A prairie restoration project was undertaken in the fall of 1992 having as its central focus the development of a coordinated environmental education program for the system. Support was sought from many sources including parents, the Diocesan Office of Justice and Peace, school administration, the Sisters of St. Joseph and the faculty. A committee made up of teachers, and administration from the schools in the system was formed in 1993. Experts were contacted in regard to the prairie restoration and supporting curriculum. Money was raised and one acre of the site was planted in the fall of 1994. During the 1994-1995 school year, the school system joined the Earth Partnership Program, sponsored by the UW-Madison Arboretum, which provided staff training in the use of the prairie site for the teaching of ecological concepts, restoration techniques and environmental concerns. During the summers of 1995 and 1996 a total of eight teachers representing five of the area Catholic schools received two weeks of intensive training at the Arboretum on the use of the site, with the lead teacher receiving 4 weeks training. The Arboretum staff conducted an inservice in June of 1996 for the entire staff of the Stevens Point Area Catholic Schools, during which teachers spent time doing grade level appropriate activities and gaining background knowledge on the prairie ecosystem. The teachers were surveyed to evaluate the use of the prairie in regard to the activities provided by the Arboretum as well as to indicate any other uses the teachers had made of the site during the 1996-1997 school year. During the 1996-1997 school year a class of 40 students from St. Stephen's were tested in both the fall and spring to evaluate their retention of concepts taught during a 11 water unit. Each class had 20 students and received the same instruction in the classroom on the water cycle. Both classes used the groundwater model and were part of a presentation by a student working with Wellhead Protection. One class, however used the outdoor classroom to better understand the concept of transpiration by designing experiments to test plant transpiration in September of 1996. When retested on the water cycle in the Spring of 1997, the students who had hands-on experience with the concept of transpiration were more likely to correctly define the term on the posttest. 111 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It is with gratitude that I acknowledge the many people who have helped to make this project a reality. My deepest appreciation goes to Sisters of St. Joseph - Third Order of St. Francis for their support of the project and the use of their grounds. It has been my joy and inspiration to meet and work with this group of dedicated women. I would also like to thank the administration, faculty, pastors, and students of the Stevens Point Area Catholic Schools for their guidance and help on the many aspects of the project from financial assistance to prayer services. It was indeed a team effort. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends, especially my husband, Andy, and my sons, Jonathan, Daniel and Michael. Your patience in listening to many hours of prairie talk, and your willingness to spend your summers cutting weeds and killing Reed Canary Grass lightened my load and made the completion of the project possible. IV TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. .ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................................ .iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................... v LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................... vii LIST OF APPENDICES ............................................................................................ viii I. THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING Statement of the Problem ................................................................... I The significance of the Project. ......................................................... .2 Delimitations ...................................................................................... 5 Definition ofTerms............................................................................ 5 Assumptions ....................................................................................... 6 II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ..................................................... 7 III. PROJECT METHODOLOGY Subproblem One ................................................................................ 12 Subproblem Two ................................................................................ 14 Subproblem Three .............................................................................. 16 Subproblem Four ............................................................................... 17 Subproblem Five ................................................................................ 17 IV. RESULTS Subproblem One ................................................................................ 19 Subproblem Two ................................................................................ 26 Subproblem Three .............................................................................. 34 Subproblem Four ............................................................................... 36 Subproblem Five ................................................................................ 3 7 V V. IMPLICATIONS, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS Subproblem One ................................................................................ 41 Subproblem Two ................................................................................ 43 Subproblem Three .............................................................................. 46 Subproblem Four ............................................................................... 47 Subproblem Five ................................................................................ 49 Conclusions & Future Goals .............................................................. 49 VI. REFERENCES CITED .................................................................................. 52 VII. REFERENCES NOT CITED ......................................................................... 54 vm. APPENDICES ............................................................................................... 55 VI LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Stevens Point Area Catholic Schools - St. Francis of Assisi Environmental Station Committee .................................................... 24 Table 2 Results of survey given to SPA CS faculty and administration .................................................................................... 25 Table 3 Map of area showing proposed pathways as designed by Pacelli student Eric Karch ............................................................ .33 Vll LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix A. Development of Native Plant Communities on the Property of the Sisters of St. Joseph by Neil Diboll ......................................... 55 Appendix B. Prayer Service to Dedicate the St. Francis of Assisi Environmental Station ....................................................................... 62 Appendix C. SPACS Survey Regarding the Development of the St. Francis of Assisi Environmental Station ........................................................ 68 Appendix D. Scope and Sequence for the Earth Partnership Activity Guide ................................................................................................ 74 Appendix E. Stevens Point Area Catholic Schools Inservice ................................. 83 Appendix F. Survey of Staff Regarding Usage of the Prairie Site ......................... .127 vm 1 THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING The Statement of the Problem The purpose of this project was to develop and initiate the implementation of an outdoor teaching facility for the Stevens Point Area Catholic Schools, and to document its use by the faculty and students of the system in the first year following its development. Subproblems Subproblem 1: To obtain the support of the administration and staff in the building and implementation of an outdoor facility for the Stevens Point Area Catholic Schools. Subproblem 2: To build a site for use by all of the schools in the Stevens Point Area Catholic School System. Subproblem 3: To initiate use of the facility by means of teacher inservice/training. Subproblem 4: To determine the use of the facility by students and staff in the year following the inservice. Subproblem 5: To test the effectiveness of using the outdoor site in the teaching of science/environmental concepts using two classes of fifth grade students from St. Stephen Grade School. 2 The Significance of the Project The private schools in the state of Wisconsin are not regulated