Nature

So you probably already know that I am a proponent of environental education.  It is sometimes a little difficult to do much environmental ed in a GED classroom where most of the students need math more than they need science lessons.  Nevertheless, I did have the opportunity to bring a little bit of nature into the classroom for the students to experience. 



Green anole



I found a couple of green anoles which are all over the place down here.  They are sometimes called American chameleons even though they aren't related to chameleons.  They can change color to blend in with their surroundings.  I put one of them that I found in a jar to get a better look at it.  It was green when I found it, but by the time the students got into the room, it had turned brown to blend in with the color of the desk it was sitting on.  They passed it around and got a good look at it, then I put some leaves and grass in the jar.  In just a couple of minutes it had turned green like it was when I found it.  We then took it outside and released it into a tree.

Praying Mantis

We also found a wicked looking praying mantis.  I brought one in earlier in the semester that was pretty small and had bright green legs, but this one was huge.  It looked like a leaf and kind of freaked out some of the students. We talked about its camoflauge and how it would help with hunting, then let it go out on the pole in whinch we found it. Then I showed them some of the crazy stuff you can find on the internet about praying mantises such as some of the larger ones catching hummingbirds and frogs.





Eastern Box Turtle

The lizards weren't the only reptiles we had in the clasroom this semester.  We also had an eastern box turtle join us on the same day as the collard green harvesting.  Ramell was going to bring it to me earlier, but the turtle escaped in his house for almost a week.  Finally he located it and brought it in for the class to observe.  He was a little bit shy and didn't want to come out of his shell very much, but it was cool to show him to the students.  I ended up letting him go in the woods behind our new house. 

Some of the other wildlife we had were leaf-footed bugs, jumping spiders, an injured pidgeon, a hawk that landed just outside of the classroom, and a cicada nymph. My plan is to start a terrarium in the classroom like I had when I was working at Pine Hill so the students can bring in creatures and we can observe them in a way that isn't quite as harmful to the animals before letting them go.



Eric and his bird