Nebraska students learn skills of the state parks

Education Week American Education News Site of Record

Nebraska students learn skills of the state parks

LOUISVILLE, Neb. (AP) — More than 1,800 students from about 20 school districts in Nebraska got to spend a day at state parks as part of a program aimed at exposing kids to the wonders of the parks.

The Outdoor Discovery Program, now in its ninth year, is the largest outdoor classroom in the state. Students attended the event on Wednesday and Thursday at Platte River State Park, the Lincoln Journal Star (http://bit.ly/2pZUU8u ) reported.

Game and Parks outdoor discovery coordinator Julia Plugge said the idea is to introduce students to the activities available in the state's parks, and give them a taste of the skills they can learn.

Teachers can choose from a multitude of activities at the program. Rochelle Settles, who teaches second grade at Fredstrom Elementary, showed her students how to fish and learn about amphibians at Platte River on Thursday.

Sticking with the fish theme, Settles has combined the field trip with the grant-funded Nebraska Game and Parks Trout in the Classroom project for the past three years. Trout eggs arrived in the classroom in January, and Settles' second-graders spent four months tending them, feeding them, cleaning their aquarium and monitoring their growth.

After the class' field trip to Platte River, Settles took her students to a hatchery at Schramm Park to release the trout.

Settles said the trout project is a way to teach students about the food chain, life cycles and how everything is connected.

Isaiah Goerdt, one of Settles' students, said Thursday's events made it the best field trip of his second-grade life.

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Information from: Lincoln Journal Star, http://ift.tt/XvFCpd

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via Education Week American Education News Site of Record April 24, 2017 at 01:59AM
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