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Imagine having a 389-acre classroom of forests, ravines, ponds,
creeks, meadows, waterfalls, wetlands and a host of wildlife from
the macro-invertebrates living in the mud at the bottom of a pond
to high-soaring hawks. CWRU has such a classroom at its Squire
Valleevue Farm in Hunting Valley. Over the past year, it was opened
to area schools for the new hands-on School Visitation Program.
photo by Susan Griffith
James Bader, director of CWRU's Center
for Science and Math Education, points out the different
features of an aquatic environment during field research
by Cleveland Heights High School students from Tony Zaccarelli's
science class. The students participated in CWRU's new School
Visitation Program at the University's Squire Valleevue
Farm in Hunting Valley.
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"The farm is a rich natural classroom, which provides Cleveland
students with the opportunity to experience first hand concepts
and field methods in areas of environmental science and ecology,"
said Ana Locci, CWRU's farm director and coordinator of the new
program. The program is supported by a grant from the Dolphin
Fund, College of Arts and Sciences and department of biology.
For seven years, the biology department has run a summer continuing
education program for middle school and high school teachers at
the farm, where the educators are exposed to field research techniques
that they can incorporate into their science classes during the
school year. The teacher training is among programs in Arts and
Sciences that are offered by the Center for Science and Math Education
and are funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to boost
awareness of the physical sciences.
Locci sees the student program as a continuation of the teacher
training where the educators can prepare students for farm visits
and follow up with additional classroom activities upon returning
to their schools. Students learn about ecology and employ research
techniques that scientists use to gather field information. They
learn about field sampling and identification of terrestrial and
aquatic plants and animals from diverse sites at the farm.
The CWRU program provides teachers with educational materials
such as field guides and plant presses to aid in post-visit activities.
Locci also notes that the program has established a Web site where
data from pond, stream and field samples are listed and where
schools can compare their results with other classes.
"The sciences and math are the doorways to opportunities in today's
technological society," said Locci, adding many students graduate
underprepared in these disciplines.
More than 335 students from Cleveland Heights High, Garfield
Heights High, Rocky River, Magnificat, Padua and Berea High Schools,
Cleveland School of the Arts and Harry E. Davis Middle School
took advantage of nature's bounty during the first year of the
program during fall and spring, when weather conditions were at
their peak.
Locci, along with Martin Rosenberg, CWRU instructor in biology
and a leading area herpetologist, and James Bader, director of
CWRU's Center for Science and Math Education, teach the program's
classes on aquatic environments, herpetology and terrestrial and
plant ecology during the daylong visits. Stacey Heffernan, farm
assistant, and Tim Matson, curator and researcher of herpetology
at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, assist in the classes.
CWRU students Jeffrey Day, Andrew Finnell, Michelle Hamilton,
Katherine Radkowsky and Jason Snyder help with the school visits.
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