SLIDESHOW

Taking the class outside on a nice day always has been pleasant. At Virginia State Parks, it also can be educational.

The park system has introduced a Piedmont Edition of its SOL-based program, Your Backyard Classroom. About 100 third-graders from Salem Church Elementary School in Chesterfield County inaugurated it this week with an expedition to Pocahontas State Park.

Activities at five stations were keyed to specific lessons in the state Standards of Learning, giving teachers an easy justification for the trip.

For the kids, the justification was immediate:

"It is really cool!"

"Awesome!"

"Learning is fun!"

Beaver Pond was their favorite learning station. That's where each student got to use a seine net to scrape some muck off the bottom of the pond and see what was living in it.

"There's good stuff all over," said park interpreter Turner Wilkes, who was outfitted in wading boots so he could step into the water and keep "Little Limnologist" participants dry on the bank.

"In the deep mud is where you want to dig."

Among their finds were cricket frogs, crawdads, tadpoles, dragonfly nymphs, stonefly nymphs, katydid larvae, minnows, water pennies, snails and clams.

"About 50 percent of the endangered species in Virginia are clams," Wilkes said. "Why? Because they easily get killed by pollution."

An activity called "Much Too Dear" divided the students into teams representing white-tailed deer on one side and the availability of food, water and shelter on the other. Each deer had to decide what to seek; each student on the habitat side had to decide what to offer.

When the deer ran across to the habitat, anyone who found his target could bring it back. Anyone who didn't became part of the habitat. Plentiful food and shelter meant the number of deer would multiply. When the deer overwhelmed the supplies, the population dwindled.

Other activities illustrated erosion, adaptations that allow animals to hide and wild food.

Your Backyard Classroom grew out of a Chesapeake Bay education program in the 1990s, said John Heerwald, now retired from his state park position as director of interpretation and education. A mountain-based edition was released about four years ago.

As the program expanded statewide, the park system used it to overcome some obstacles that had kept teachers away.

"There were environmental curricula available, but teachers weren't using them in our parks," Heerwald said. Reasons included lack of familiarity with state parks, lack of knowledge about science and lack of equipment.

A half-day workshop at the park helps teachers get past the barriers before they get a loose-leaf binder filled with park maps and activities.

"They learn the basics, the logistics," he said. They find out that equipment for the activities is available at the park. "They meet the staff. The staff will walk them through two or three activities in the guide. It breaks down the initial roadblock. By requiring the workshop, they're more likely to come back."

Children at the first Backyard Classroom at Pocahontas State Park have another reason to return.

They helped state parks director Joe Elton plant a red oak tree in front of the Heritage Center.

"If we take care of this tree," Elton told them, "you'll be able to bring your children back to Pocahontas State Park and say, 'See that giant tree? I helped plant it.'"
Contact Katherine Calos at (804) 649-6433 or kcalos@timesdispatch.com.