Kristin Harty Barkley
FROSTBURG — Cassie Doty had to work around the snow drifts Friday.
Using GPS and Geographic Information System technology, she showed a small group of environmental educators how to map and assess land outside the Appalachian Laboratory on Braddock Road in Frostburg.
“We just kind of winged it,” said Doty, education coordinator at the lab and a presenter at the 25th annual Maryland Association for Environmental & Outdoor Education conference.
The event, originally scheduled for Feb. 4-7, was postponed two weeks because of snowstorms that dumped more than two feet of snow on the area.
Several hundred public school teachers and other “non-formal educators” gathered at venues in Frostburg and Rocky Gap State Park for a weekend of workshops on everything from soil fertility to aquatic biodiversity, from identifying amphibians to creating a schoolyard wetland.
Five people participated in Doty’s Friday morning workshop, called “Electrifying Environmental Education.”
“They did really well taking their GPS units out and marking places, and taking pictures of the places they marked, talking about the landcover there,” said Doty, adding that 8-foot snow drifts didn’t dampen the fun of the exercise.
“Then they mapped that and said, ‘Well, would water that hits this landcover soak into the ground or run off? It’s a concrete surface, so it’s going to run off. Well, where does it go if it runs off? So they use the mapping to show that it runs to the stream, and then from that stream it runs to the Bay. And then they look at all the landcover — the whole Bay watershed — and see that all the stuff that runs across the land winds up in the Bay.”
That’s the kind of lesson MAEOE members try to take to to K-12 students across Maryland. The group’s annual conference is an opportunity for educators to compare notes and enhance environmental their education programs.
“It’s really for everybody — anybody that’s interested in environmental education,” said Pat Ghingher a teacher and naturalist for Baltimore County Public Schools and a member of the MAEOE board. This year’s weather delay caused attendance to drop slightly, she said.
“We lost some people, but we gained some people, too,” said Ghinger, who has attended the annual conference for the past 15 years. “I don’t think it was a 50-50 swap, but I think we fared pretty well.”
The conference, which is held at different locations in Maryland each year, has only taken place in Allegany County once before. It’s a great networking opportunity and a chance for educators to “re-energize,” Ghingher said.
“It gives you new ideas,” said Ghinger, who participated in the “Identifying Fish” workshop Friday. “It also verifies what we’re doing. The comradeship is wonderful, just associating with your peers. ... You’re surrounded by people who feel the same, who are here for the same reason — to improve the environment, but also to improve education. To get these kids to learn about it so they’ll take care of it.”
Seven Allegany County teachers were to participate in the weekend’s events, including Jennifer Knotts and Matt Kline of Washington Middle School; Alan Hammond, of Allegany High School; Mac Sloan and Annie Stark of Fort Hill High School; and Becky Byzon and Tom Kozikowski of Mountain Ridge High School.
“The goal with teacher training is to reach as many teachers as possible so they can spread the word and increase environmental literacy,” said Doty, who has worked at the Appalachian Lab for five years.
Maryland Department of Natural Resources biologist Dan Boward showed a small group of conference participants how to identify benthic macroinvertebrates on Friday. Crouched over microscopes, they tried to match specimens with drawings and descriptions in books.
Biologists study benthic macroinvertebrates to monitor water quality, said Boward, who works in Annapolis. Teachers — and in turn, students — can learn about what kind of pollutants have invaded a stream based on the types of macroinvertebrates that live in it, he said.
“We want to impress on people how we have to protect our streams to keep these critters alive,” Boward said.
Contact Kristin Harty Barkley at kharty@times-news.com.
