By Lee Ross
Mountain View Telegraph
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Wildlife West Nature Park is transformed into a 122-acre classroom.
Those are the days that Jim Smith, a science teacher at East Mountain High School, has volunteered to teach environmental science to 10 of the workers there.
The students all attend EMHS, where they will be credited for the course. They are also working at the park this summer, paid by a grant from the Youth Conservation Corps.
The teenagers are already learning about conservation from the park's founder, Roger Alink, and they learn to fix tractors, weld, build walls or trails and pour concrete, as well as hundreds if not thousands of bad jokes.
Alink illustrated this, pointing out one of the EMHS students, Joaquin Garcia, and saying the young man's real last name is “Stick.”
As Joaquin picked his way through cactus and tree branches on his way to meet a group of students, he said he'd never thought about where the animals live before.
On the first day of class, July 1, Smith taught the students to tell the difference between alligator, Rocky Mountain and oneseed juniper, which can be found in New Mexico. On the second day they refurbished bird houses, pressed plant samples and were finishing the day looking for coyote holes.
“We haven't learned that much because class just started,” said Jessica Self, one of the students.
Smith said the class is following normal standards and benchmarks for any course on environmental education, but he also sends them out into the fenced-in park to learn on their own.
“I'm hoping they learn to observe their surroundings more,” said Smith. “(Environmental education) just opens your eyes to what's around you.”
EMHS uses an inquiry method in which students ask their own questions, which is one way to keep them engaged in the classroom, Smith said.
“I'm not the sage on the stage anymore, I'm the guide on the side,” he said.
He said he is passionate about trying to change the way education is handled. In fact, that's part of the reason Smith ran for state representative. He lost in the recent Republican primary to incumbent Kathy McCoy, but he says he'll be on a ballot again. He said too many students who don't plan to go to college lose interest and drop out of school.
He said the EMHS model is not the only one that works, but he said he wants to help keep students enthusiastic about their education.
“Give (students) programs that keep them excited,” Smith said.
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