There's an old idea in education- don't just give students facts to memorize, give them experience to use those facts. That's exactly what the high school competition Envirothon does. The program gives students from around the country a real life environmental problem to solve. Coming up with a solution requires students understand both the complexities of science and the politics of natural resource decision making. Some New Hampshire students are taking part in the competition. NHPR's Dan Gorenstein joined them and filed this report.
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It's a Saturday morning, a bright, chilly Saturday morning. But these New Hampshire students are in class. They're learning how the state tries to control variable milfoil.
Here's the problem, says Amy Smagula of the Department of Environmental Services- there are more than 50 New Hampshire lakes infested with milfoil. It's one of the biggest invasive plant problems in the state. Attempting to combat the exotic invader, the state spends $150 thousand dollars a year. Smagula tells her students it's a fight the state is losing.
1:20 What you are going to do, is you are going to solve the problem of what to do with that plant in the lake.
But there's a catch.
5:26 the little catch, is in the pond, there is a rare and endangered species, I have to tell you this is a real case scenario, this pond exists� You have to consider, whatever you do to the pond, you have to keep this plant in mind.
The plant, explains Smagula, is pink bog button. It�s a frilly little plant that looks a lot like milfoil. She advises the students: be careful.
Souhegan High Science teacher Ann Clifton-Weight relishes the chance to watch her students face the complexities of real life- complexities like the pink bog button.
2:23 how do you to get kids really involved in knowing and understanding how to deal with science, and not just deal with a textbook. So I really wanted to do some authentic learning, when I found out they wanted to solve real environmental problems through Envirothon, I thought that was perfect.
Apparently quite a few teachers and students think highly of Envirothon. More than 100 students from 17 schools participated in Envirothon�s Training Day at Elm Brook State Park in Hopkington.
Over the six-hour session, students identified water bugs, measured trees, rolled soil in their hands and generally absorbed information from the 20 scientists who volunteered their time.
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It�s a day, says Smagula, when students are bombarded with information.
:45 At each site the students go to, they learn different aspects of what they should understand. Like at the soil site, they do a soil test pit, and look at what the different soil tells them. So they can understand how things grow in soil. At the water station, they learn water chemistry, how things use water. Each station they go to, they pick up a different idea about the importance and measurability of a certain system, and they know how to use those tools�
The students get more than just background on forests, soils, wildlife, water habitats and invasive species. The students will take one-hour exams on this stuff in May.
But this information is only part of the test. Each school�s Envirothon team is also expected to give a presentation on how to best deal with its real life environmental problem�the milfoil choked lake.
Again Amy Smagula.
�And when they get to the special project they bring all that knowledge from each of the places and try to figure out, ok, we have this problem, and given wildlife considerations, how do all those work together to affect this particular project.
That�s interconnectedness. Where sciences work together. It�s a concept, Smagula says, students need to demonstrate in their milfoil presentations.
Durham High School Senior Alice says her team didn�t get it in its first year of competition.
7:49 Last year we didn�t really think about it, we thought now soil, now acquatics, now it�s more of a system.
Understanding the science is just part of the test. In the real world, science doesn�t exist in a vacuum. Political and social forces shape environmental policy. So the students are also assigned roles to play. Lakes biologist. Fisheries biologist. Recreationist. Lake Resident. Town Selectmen.
Smagula says that�s exactly what the Department of Environmental Services deals with. And from her own experience, she knows there�s no right answer.
1:33 The important thing was I told them there was no correct solution. It�s case specific for every water body. They wouldn�t come up with the wrong answer, they would just have to justify it, how it�s going to affect other things in the lake, and people around the lake. And how they think it might solve the problem.
Laura Morton, a soil scientist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, says thorough thinking about real problems helps the students see gray.
5:11 once you get out there and realize it�s about policy, it�s about individual decisions, and it starts to get a lot more complicated, and I think they start to see that when they do these special projects.
Souhegan High School Junior Amanda started learning about invasive species when she and some of her teammates went to a symposium last October. She already seems to understand that science is only part any milfoil solution.
2:00 evasive species are very hard to deal with, one of the way you deal with them is using chemicals, herbicides. And there is a lot of public relations going on there when you deal with herbicides b/c people tend ot have fears about their safety and what it will do to their environment.
For Meagan, another Souheagan Junior, Envirothon gives her a broader understanding of science and society. But it also opens up a personal door.
2:23 a lot of times students don�t get an opportunity to do what you actually do in the real world. They sit in classrooms, they read things out of text books, but in Envirothon you get a chacen to go out and do what the professionals are doing�I can go here and explore more of it, or find out I don�t want to do it.
The teams have one month to gather all the maps, water quality data, fact sheets, and descriptions of milfoil mitigations. State teams compete in late May. The winner will represent the Granite State at Nationals in July. For NHPR News, I�m DG.
