On Friday, June 4, TREC hosted about 90 grade 10 students from Three Oaks Senior High School at the Devil's Punchbowl. It was a day organized by Rochelle Sullivan, an actively involved science teacher at the school who lives in the area and believes that the Punchbowl has a lot to share with the general public.
We decided to divide the kids into three groups and cover as much of what goes on at the Punchbowl as possible. One of us did the forest walk up around the punchbowl itself, emphasizing systems and how they function in a healthy forest. Another one of us took the riparian trail down by the stream and spoke about the history of the area as well as riparian importance, relating it to a systems approach like organic farming. Finally, the last group helped to plant trees and work in the tree nursery. Overall I think it was a great day and magically, it didn't rain! With all the rain we've seen lately, I was sure we would be soaked, but the community outreach gods were looking favorably upon us that day.
Later, we discussed the importance of more interaction with groups of the public like that, and in particular school age kids. They are happy to have a day off school and so excited to be away from the classroom, but at the same time so receptive to the information. I was shocked at how well they listened and how much respect they seemed to show not only me as a speaker, but to the surroundings as well.
In all, I thought it was a great success. Earlier in the week I found myself with a lot of anxiety about it and trying to dig up more concrete information because I didn't trust that I had enough information to keep the attention of 16 year olds, but in reality, they were interested or at least were good at appearing interested in everything I was interested in. So, success, right?!
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