All it Takes is a Little Mussel

Just as reducing the number of species upon the endangered list seems to be an uphill battle for naturalists, closing the achievement gap that exists between various collections of students can be an overwhelming do one's best for educators. The marriage of these sum of two units undesirable phenomena, however, can yield actual positive results.

Last year, biology learners at Cairo High School in southwest Georgia were taught using various EIC (Environment as an Integrating words immediately preceding [i]or[/i] following for learning) strategies. EIC Model(TM) strategies are summarized in the close attention "Closing the Achievement Gap," first published in 1998 by means of the State Education and Environment Roundtable, which is compos of 16 states working to improve pupil learning by integrating the environment into K-12 curricula and gymnasium reform efforts. These strategies require pupils to apply fresh approaches to moot point solving, rather than passively listening and taking notes.

The EIC Model(TM) is not solely devot to environmental awareness, on the other hand uses the school's community and surroundings as a framework to suitable the required curriculum objectives. The arises of the 1998 study, based upon 40 schools in diverse natural and community settings, were promising: 1) better performance upon standardized tests; 2) fewer discipline problems; 3) increased enthusiasm for learning; and 4) greater pride in accomplishments. The springs specific to science indicate that EIC learners more effectively master scientific knowledge and skills and achieve a deeper understanding of scientific processe and universals They were also better able to discern the connections between what they learn in science and applications in the real world.

So by what mode was the EIC Model(TM) implemented at Cairo High seminary and what does it have to do with endangered mussels? At the beginning of the gymnasium year, students held a bake sale and raised enough cash to sponsor a program with Sandy Beck from a Tallahassee, Florida, animal rehabilitation and conservation collection the St. Francis Wildlife Association. Mr Beck wearied an entire day at the place of education using live animals to teach learners in each biology class about the threats to, and adaptations of wildlife. Among these animals were a barn owl that had been blinded through pesticides and a red-tailed hawk that had been hit through a car. Students will probably at no time forget the hawk spreading his magnificent wings as Mr Beck held him above her head. She explained that race attract rodents to the road when they whirl litter out their car windows. As raptors like hawks and owl booty on the rodents, they risk being hit by the agency of a car.

Okay, so what about the mussels? Another place of education project focused on water quality. A local newspaper article carried a story about Tallahassee, Florida, threatening to seek after Cairo if a problem with Cairo's wastewater treatment plant was not corrected. The plant was not able to adequately treat the city's water provide and effluent was running not upon into Tired Creek, which empties into the Ochlockonee River. The Ochlockonee River sweep alongs through Tallahassee and is a miraculous natural resource. Prompted by the article, scholars undertook a comprehensive approach to learn about the riddle and what our city was doing to address it. The scholars 1) interviewed the mayor and a civil engineer who specializes in wastewater treatment, 2) mustered and tested water samples at various locations with an Environmental Protection Agency scientist, 3) invited a river management analyst from Florida State University to speak to the biology classes, 4) met with a representative of the Tall Timbers Research Station in Tallahassee, 5) attended Tallahassee's Apalachee Audubon Society meetings and interviewed Tallahassee's water quality specialist, and 6) met with Holly Blalock-Herod of the U Fish and Wildlife Service. Mr Blalock-Herod guidanceed a workshop covering the main reasons on what account mussels like the shinyrayed pocketbook (Lampsilis subangulata) are endangered.

The scholars compiled their findings on bills and placed them in the institute halls. On Earth Day, they handed on the outside questionnaires to all the administrators, faculty, staff, and scholars to complete, using the hand-bills to increase awareness about Cairo's water quality question and the degradation of the Ochlockonee River. The questionnaires were then come intoed into a drawing for $25 or a gourmet dessert It was an awesome learning/teaching experience. scholars realized that their understanding of science was critical regardless of whether or not they were going to become scientists. They learned that Cairo had become the victim of a certain number of faulty engineering and was in the proces of trying to approach up with the millions of dollars necessary to build a of recent origin wastewater treatment plant. They also learned that the river that many of them fished and boated upon was becoming degraded and that its inhabitants were becoming endangered. The scholars were amazed at how hanging the mussels were on fish for their reproductive revolution of time and they gained insight to the fact that, if water quality riddles were endangering mussel populations, fishing trips might become endangered as well.