Grandfather Mountain (Again)
Today, I made a second trip to Grandfather Mountain, this time with only my 16 students in tow, rather than as part of a camp-wide excursion. We had this field trip planned for a while before the administration scheduled a trip for the whole camp, so we decided to go anyway, even though many of our students had already been. Plus, there are things you can do with 16 kids that you just can't do with almost 300 (like stopping for fudge in the Fudge Shoppe and walking across the Mile-High Swinging Bridge), so our class was excited about this second trip and the opportunity to take part in the once-forbidden parts of Grandfather Mountain.
When we got there, we participated first in a population ecology program with a naturalist, talking about some of the big guys (like mountain lions and bears, oh my!) that live in the Southern Appalachians, then we headed to the habitat enclosures to check them out up-close and personal. The bears were a friendly favorite again today, and the cougars and deer were a little more active, too.
After visiting the habitats and the Fudge Shoppe, we made the winding drive up to the top of Grandfather Mountain where the swinging bridge is to be found. It was so incredibly windy today; I was a little afraid that one of our 70-pound 12-year-olds might unintentionally take flight and be swept away. Luckily, the day was much less eventful than it could have been, and everyone kept their feet firmly on the mountain.
Our class has definitely absorbed the observation skills we've been trying to instill in them; they stopped and looked and spewed information about pollinators and certain kinds of flowers coevolving with this girl. Proud teacher moment. But the "let nature be" lesson has been harder to solidify. They were dead-set on making this little hummingbird our class pet - in a cinder-block room with no windows, no less. While hand selecting the appropriate food and shelter for her might have been educational, we opted for putting her back in the shrubs to take care of herself. Overall, our day was good and long and tiring. A nice weekend away from campus this weekend definitely recharged my energy, patience, and attitude, and I'm pretty sure these days that both I and my students will make it through this term of TIP relatively unscathed and better for the experience.
When we got there, we participated first in a population ecology program with a naturalist, talking about some of the big guys (like mountain lions and bears, oh my!) that live in the Southern Appalachians, then we headed to the habitat enclosures to check them out up-close and personal. The bears were a friendly favorite again today, and the cougars and deer were a little more active, too.
After visiting the habitats and the Fudge Shoppe, we made the winding drive up to the top of Grandfather Mountain where the swinging bridge is to be found. It was so incredibly windy today; I was a little afraid that one of our 70-pound 12-year-olds might unintentionally take flight and be swept away. Luckily, the day was much less eventful than it could have been, and everyone kept their feet firmly on the mountain.
We finished our trip with a nice picnic lunch and made our way back to campus. On our way to the library, we spotted this tiny thing on the sidewalk, looking intently at us, but not moving a muscle (except her heart, of course, which beats something like 615 times a minute at rest and 1,200 times a minute in flight. wowzers.).
Our class has definitely absorbed the observation skills we've been trying to instill in them; they stopped and looked and spewed information about pollinators and certain kinds of flowers coevolving with this girl. Proud teacher moment. But the "let nature be" lesson has been harder to solidify. They were dead-set on making this little hummingbird our class pet - in a cinder-block room with no windows, no less. While hand selecting the appropriate food and shelter for her might have been educational, we opted for putting her back in the shrubs to take care of herself. Overall, our day was good and long and tiring. A nice weekend away from campus this weekend definitely recharged my energy, patience, and attitude, and I'm pretty sure these days that both I and my students will make it through this term of TIP relatively unscathed and better for the experience.
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