Students teach students in science

It's one thing for a high school sophomore to learn a subject; it's something entirely different for he or she to teach that knowledge to someone else - especially to fourth-graders. But that's just what the sophomores of Rima Givot's Sisters High School biology class did Thursday and Friday of last week.

Starting at around 9 a.m. each day, two classrooms of fourth-graders took the short bus ride to the high school, where they were met by SHS biology teacher Rima Givot and small groups of her sophomore biology student-teachers.

Givot had trained her students in a variety of field studies and techniques for gathering forest natural history data for the school. She also introduced them to the protocols of quantitative data collecting.

To better bring the details of these studies into focus and provide the opportunity for her students to do some "student teaching," Givot set up an outdoor study project with the elementary school, where her students could introduce their younger peers to the techniques of outdoor biological studies.

A total of 80 sophomores went out to meet the fourth-graders in three groups of about five students each. Each of the groups were assigned three areas of study: plant identification; native animals and their role in the forest; and methods of establishing study plots and how to collect data on forest volume.

"There are two types of rabbitbrush," explained sophomore Jordan Williams, pointing out the plants to the younger children, and then addressing the role on rabbitbrush in the food web.

"Are these deer tracks?" One of the fourth-graders asked sophomore Spencer Greene. He confirmed the younger student had correctly identified the tracks of a mule deer, and then went on to demonstrate how it is possible to tell the difference between the tracks of a doe and a buck by looking for the two extra indentations made by the buck's dewclaws.

As each hour passed, high school students and their elementary charges began to blend into teams. Plants that meant nothing to the younger children were given names, and slowly the role of those plants in forest ecology took focus. The younger children learned how to establish a study plot, how to do the math of circumference, diameter and height of trees to estimate volume of the forest, and what the role of snags (dead tress) is to wildlife and a healthy forest community.

"The data these high school biology students are gathering will be a big help for the school district in the future," said Leland Bliss, Sisters School District director of operations.

The students will present their work to the school board Wednesday, October 6, at 7 p.m.

Not only did the high school and elementary school students gain new knowledge, new friends, and enjoy the outdoor laboratory, but the teachers had a doubly good day: They had the opportunity to see some of their past students in action, teaching the new generation.

"It's so great to see some of my older students passing along their knowledge to the younger kids - it's a great mentoring thing we have going here," said fourth-grade teacher Clay Warburton.

Kathy Powell echoed Clay's thoughts, adding, "This is my first time to take part in this kind of program and I have to say, it's one the best outdoor learning experiences I've seen - and it's so good to see many of my older students teaching others. This is my dream job!"