Published: February 22, 2008 03:28 pm      

Hands-on nature studies help students in PSSA tests

BY NOLA BARTON

AMERICORPS MEMBER

It may be cold and snowy outside, but some Cambria County students are still experiencing nature up close and personal, right in their classrooms.

Painted turtles, mud puppies, gerbils, snails, fish and a king snake are some of the critters visiting area schools, courtesy of a variety of programs taught by Jackie Ritko, supervisor of Disaster’s Edge Environmental Resource Center, St. Michael, and Nola Barton, an AmeriCorps Environmental Education Specialist.

The Cambria County Conservation District offers these free programs not only to help teachers prepare their students for the new state PSSA tests on environmental science and ecology, but also to give students the opportunity to better understand and appreciate nature through inquiry-based hands-on science programs.

“As children spend more of their leisure time playing video and computer games they often miss out on many childhood experiences with nature,” Ritko said. “Without these firsthand experiences, children often have many misconceptions about animals and nature, so we try to dispel some of these myths.”

During a recent program at Forest Hills Elementary School, fourth-graders not only learned about animal habitats and adaptations, but they also saw some of the adaptations in action. They watched earthworms tunnel through the soil of a wormery, examined the larval and adult stages of salamanders, the functions of the shells of live turtles and examined firsthand the characteristics that differentiate mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, invertebrates and birds.

In the spring and fall, many classes visit the Disaster’s Edge Environmental Education Center for in-the-field study of wetlands, meadows, and woods.

But the learning doesn’t have to stop just because it’s cold outside, which is why the Cambria County Conservation District and AmeriCorps are working to bring nature into the classroom for winter.