By Jeremy Pittari, Item Staff Writer
The Picayune Item
PICAYUNE —
Two Hancock County teachers’ internship work at Crosby Arboretum will provide local teachers access to kits that can be used to incorporate natural science into their curriculum.
West Hancock Elementary teacher Jean Cuevas is the second teacher from that school district to create the kits, or traveling educational trunks. East Hancock Elementary teacher Tabitha Rumbaugh started the program by creating a kit that could teach children about animal scat and tracks earlier this summer. Cuevas began her internship by adding some color and a couple of new rubber scat and track sets to the kit Rumbaugh created. After that, Cuevas began working on four kits of her own.
The kits Cuevas is working on each focus either on trees, bird beaks, animal adaptations or habitats. Working under the same educator internship program as Rumbaugh, Cuevas will put in 80 hours of work at the arboretum to create material for the kits, and earn eight units in continuing education credits from Pearl River Community College.
Cuevas’ work will differ slightly from Rumbaugh’s, since Cuevas’ background is in physical education. She will work to educate and while getting students active by bringing them into the out-of-doors.
She said in the tree kit, teachers can use the material she has gathered to teach students how to find shapes in the leaves, bark, limbs and other aspects of a tree with sight and touch. In the animal adaptation kit, students can learn how animals adapted to thrive in certain environments thorugh changes, such as in color and behavior.
In the bird beaks kit, students will learn how different bird beaks handle different foods. In the habitat kit, students can learn how certain combinations of vegetation, water, and other variables create everything an animal needs in terms of food, shelter, water and living space.
Games will be incorporated into each lesson plan in the four kits, and the kits will use hands-on projects to create dioramas or collages, Cuevas said.
While the kits Cuevas is developing will not contain animal scat and tracks, they will contain a full lesson plan with procedures, tests and enrichment activities, Cuevas said. However the animal adaptation kits will contain animal replicas and the bird beak kit will contain objects that simulate beaks.
Arboretum Senior Curator Patricia Drackett said the Hancock School District Intern program has been a good way for the arboretum to create the kits, which will allow students to learn about local wildlife. Usually, children know more about zoo animals than the animals in their backyards, Drackett said. Also, with field trip budgets shrinking, these kits can provide a way for teachers to get students outside of the classroom.
The kits will be available for checkout from the arboretum this school year. Details on how local teachers can borrow the kits, or traveling educational trunks, will be sent directly to each school by the arboretum, Drackett said.
Kits focusing on snakes and insects are planned for the future, Drackett said.
Cuevas said her time at the arboretum has prompted her to communicate with teachers at her school to attempt to form P.E. activities that tie into classroom instruction.
“That’s something a lot of teachers don’t think about, asking the P.E. teacher if there’s something they can do,” Cuevas said.
Cuevas said she enjoys doing internships at the arboretum. This is her second one.
“You learn so much and you have such a good time doing it. It’s not like some of the boring classes I’ve had in the past,” Cuevas said.
