So far during this new job, I have been teaching programs that have already been brainstormed and written up. Today, I was able to create a whole new program for Education that revolved around the Daniel Smiley Research Center. Since I work in two different departments, I was chosen to lead the San Miguel Academy's 8th graders in a Daniel Smiley Research Center-based program.
If I have not already explained this, the Daniel Smiley Research Center is where the Conservation Science department is housed. The DSRC is home to our collections room where Daniel Smiley kept specimens of flora and fauna that were discovered on the ridge, even archaeological, Native American artifacts found in rock shelters on the ridge, and it houses over 120-years of weather, lake, and natural history records.
Originally, this program was planned to have a snow-shoe hike around the Mountain House property. However, we have not been getting much snow to make snow-shoeing possible. So, we had to put on the "flexi-pants" and come up with something else. I decided to do a rendition of the Murie Museum back in the Tetons.
I created a workbook/DSRC journal that focused on up to 8 activities that allowed the students to float through stations for about an hour. These activities portrayed similar activities that our staff and research associates perform at the DSRC. So, it was basically a "Day in the Life of the DSRC" tour. Below are some of the stations I created.
TheChristyBel
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| Station 1: Bird Identification Using Specimens, Guides, & Observation |
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| Does this plant have alternating or opposing leaves? |
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| Station 2: Understanding the Herbarium |
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| Identifying Birds |
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Station 3: Mammal Identification Through Skull Anatomy
Station 4: Examination of Native American Artifacts (in the background) |
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| Herbivore, Carnivore, Omnivore? |
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| Station 5: Measuring Precipitation from the night before |
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| Station 9: Visiting Mohonk Lake to Obtain Lake Samples |
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