It is raining. A critter is scratching at the corner of my tent. I am surrounded by a "Beginning Band class" group of snorers that play too loudly and can not yet fall into rhythm with each other. I am cold, female and have to go to the bathroom. The problem - the outhouse is a ways away, through the woods, and it is dark. So dark that I actually think I appreciate all that light pollution that hides the stars at home. The loons are calling and……now ……the wolves began to howl. Not a welcoming situation for the first night on Isle Royale, in the northern waters of Lake Superior.

"I am a logical person", I tell myself as I shake down the path with a headlamp on and a flashlight on the path. The loons are mourning and ….the wolves continue to answer each other. I listened in class just a day ago and read the literature on wolf behavior. I do think, however, if presented with a multiple choice question on such a topic I would, at the moment, choose "D": Dead due to pack attack.

The night relinquished about an hour of sleep. My vessels constricted to the point of no blood flow - to the brain I was sure. I know about wolf behavior- elusive with a fear of humans. I was where I had wanted to visit for years. Isle Royale, with it's wolf and moose population, is on my list of things to do before I die - which was going to be soon…….

Yet, despite the knowledge I had, I still had fear. I feared the face to face encounter until the third day on the Island. After listening to conversation between the 20 classmates and discussing wolf behaviors with the experts, it still took over three days of immersion to reconstruct my ideas to where I could emotionally hold "very little" fear. Where the fear actually transforms into a respect.

How does this experience affect my teaching? How does it relate? It took me over 72 hours of emersion to internally change ideas that I could speak logically of, yet not perform. That is 4,320 minutes or 96 class periods (45 minutes long). We do not have 96 class periods (or 19.2 weeks) to spend on one idea in the school systems. Somehow we must convince our students to rebuild their ideas more efficiently.

For the students that come and visit our district Science Resource and Nature Center, I can best help them to examine, modify and reconstruct ideas more efficiently by passing on the tools I used during my class on Isle Royale. We did read information. But more helpful were the discussions with others and the time to experience and reflect. These were stored in a journal. I needed to give students the time to explore, listen and search; and a journal to sketch and describe discoveries and record thoughts and feelings. (pg 8). I needed to allow time for the process instead of rushing through the content. For, without the process, the content is rendered useless.

I had for several years now, rushed groups through the designated areas of the Nature Center to make sure they "experienced all the content". They studied decomposers, visited the pond, meadow and forest; examined a dead log and smelled duckweed. They swept through water with aquatic nets and counted macro-invertebrates. They had it all. We could hit 35 vocabulary words and 15 state benchmarks in a two hour visit. I felt successful! The students were getting real-world experiences and we were covering content! The students did not get to experience the process, and therefore, left without truly appreciating the special space nature provides.

I look forward to the transformation the visits will go through this as I revamp the programming for more process. The focus will allow for the students to experience behaving as a field scientist instead of game show participants filling a grocery cart with as many items as possible in a designated amount of time.

As groups come out to visit, the teachers place the students into small groups with a parent leader. I have found it to be necessary to have a brief parent orientation meeting while students are creating name tags and preparing to go outside. The five-minute orientation briefs the parents on the activities and rules. I also stress the importance of their role on the success of the trip. They are not to tell the students information. They are to be facilitators of learning. Their role is to ask questions that will guide the students through a portion of their experiences. I supply the parents with a facilitator's copy of the student's journal. This copy has a multitude of questions with each activity that the parents can refer to so that they can guide the group in their explorations of specific natural areas.

The students will be given more time to record and reflect on their observations and thoughts. Journal pages will offer several modes of journaling to help students find the method that works best for them and the information they need to gather. Journal pages will have a more open look with a sample sketch and questions to guide student's observations.

Students will also be given more tools to use than before. Students will have a clipboard with a pencil. They have hand lenses to take closer look. But I will add some colored pencils, a pencil sharpener, a good eraser, a creature container and a tape measure. These items will be carried in a Ziploc freezer bag that students can clip to the clipboard or wear around their waist on a nylon belt. (I place a strip of clear packing tape along the top of the Ziploc - just under the seal. I then cut two slits for the belt to pass through. I have also had luck with a loop of string through a hole punched through both sides of the bag and tape). Another option would be fanny packs from a dollar store that students can borrow.

I will be able to assess the successfulness of the changes in the programs through attitude surveys of the students and teachers that came out in the fall and will return in the spring. I will also be able to pre- and post-test two different groups. One group will run through an old program and the second group will run through a new program. Both groups have the same science teacher, are the same grade level, and will visit on the same day.

I am hoping to find that more students "personally" visit the nature center and learn about their own thoughts and ideas. I also want to model a better process of giving students a field experience for the teachers that bring their classes out for visits.

The second edition of this assignment will contain the journals we will use and the programming, assessments and attitude surveys from the classes involved in the comparisons. I will also include some sample journal entries from the students who participated.