2018 Isabella County Environmental Education Day

Friday was our 9th annual Environmental Education Day.  This event takes months of planning and requires the effort of dozens of people to be a success.  Six months prior to the date I start contacting a variety of government agencies and environmental organizations to participate.  My goal is to have around twenty different educational stations (including the Isabella Conservation District) set up for the students that attend.  This year the following groups participated:

• Michigan Department of Natural Resources (Law Enforcement and Wildlife Division)
• Isabella County Parks and Recreation
• Mt. Pleasant Parks and Recreation
• GreenTree Cooperative Grocery
• Elijah Elk Cultural Center
• Nature Discovery
• Ziibiwing Center of Anishinaabe Culture & Lifeways
• Chippewa Valley Audubon Club
• Pheasants Forever - Isabella County Chapter
• Chippewa River District Library
• Alma College Archaeological Project
• Central Michigan University Museum of Cultural and Natural History
• MSU Extension - Isabella County
• Mt. Pleasant Discovery Museum
• Chippewa Watershed Conservancy
• Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe - Environmental Team

Why do we need so many different activities? 

It's because of the number of students that attend.  We invite every third grade classroom in Isabella County to attend the Environmental Education Day.  This year 28 different classes were able to attend.  That meant that we had almost 600 students in attendance this year!  Luckily, the students don't all come at once.  Half of the students come for a morning session and the other half come for the afternoon - 300 students at one time is still whole lot of kids!  We need so many different activities to make sure the students have something to do the entire time they are at the event.

Here are a few scenes from Environmental Education Day.

Creating a "tree cookie" necklace with Isabella County Parks

Learning about Ojibwe culture with the Ziibiwing Center

Chippewa Watershed Conservancy Executive Director Jon Breithaupt talks preserves with students and chaperones

Everyone wanted photos!

Learning about the life span of materials from the CMU Museum staff

Reptiles always amaze

Every kid received a backpack from us (and elk antlers from the DNR)

Crafting a radish seed necklace with MSU Extension

Celebrating 100 year of elk in Michigan with the DNR

Learning about Anishinaabe culture from the Elijah Elk Cultural Center

Rocks and minerals at the Isabella Conservation District table - such a tactile experience!

Ask me about bees, please!

Searching for aquatic life

Saginaw Chippewa Environmental Team teaching about water quality

Just a few of the students - learning about archaeology from Alma College

Kids love to learn about and from Michigan Department of Natural Resources conservation officers

Bicycle-powered smoothies with GreenTree Grocery

Pheasant Forever had pheasant chicks on site - a huge hit with the students!