by Gretchen Marshall WAEE conference participants who chose to
attend the field trip to the Southern Door School Forest were
treated to a beautiful fall afternoon. We were guided on a tour
through the forest by elementary principal Laurie Connell and
school forest coordinator Mike Toneys. The 50 acre property
contains a diversity of habitats including a mixed hardwood
forest, field, pond, spruce plantation, and cave. This forest
has some of the largest beech trees I have ever seen! Trails run
throughout the entire property and are clearly marked on the
sign located at the entrance to the forest. What are students
learning about at the forest? Here is a snippet of a few of the
things we discovered: Students and teachers gravitate toward the
pond to study the living organisms that inhabit it. There are a
handful of crudely constructed wildlife observation blinds that
high school students use to collect data. Beginning in
elementary school, each student receives a plot of land to study
and collect data about eac