In 1625, Sir Francis Bacon, philosopher and statesman, published a group of essays. In one of the essays he retold the story of Mohammed, the founder of the Islamic religion. Out of this story came a famous quote, “If the mountain won’t come to Mohammed, Mohammed must go to the mountain.”
This proverbial phrase can be interpreted as if one’s will cannot prevail, then one must search out and submit to an alternative. This idea has certainly been prevalent at the Environmental Studies Center (ESC) and has guided our instruction this year.
2020-2021 was a challenging year
The 2020-2021 school year was certainly a difficult one at the center, with our doors and gates being closed for over nine months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Students were sent home, and much of the school year was virtual instruction.
We eagerly anticipated the 2021-2022 school year only to be faced with the Delta variant of COVID. Despite this new threat, the goal of the school system is to keep students in school rather than go virtual. As an extra layer of security, most principals have elected to restrict students from attending field trips. While we were sorely disappointed in these decisions, we certainly understand the need to keep students safe and support the decisions of the administrators.
As a result of these unusual circumstances, the staff of the ESC had some crucial discussions on how we could best continue to serve our students and teachers without involving more screen time.
Programing takes the outdoors to schools
We firmly believe that in order to begin to value our planet and its inhabitants, students must be fully engaged, and that is difficult behind a computer. As a result, we modified our programming to include programs we can take directly to the students in the schools.
The ESC offers five outreach programs to public, private and parochial schools. These programs are also available for civic groups and other organizations.
- The Raptor Road Show, our oldest outreach program, engages and educates the audience about the wonders of birds of prey. This program features rehabilitated, non-releasable raptors including owls, hawks, American kestrel, Mississippi kite and/or a bald eagle.
- The Wildlife of Mobile Road Show, our most popular outreach program for school groups, captivates the audience in the amazing native animals that live in our area. This program features mammals, birds and reptiles. Typical animals that are seen during this program are an owl, a hawk, an alligator, a snake and an opossum.
- The Remarkable Reptiles Road Show is an awe-inspiring presentation of various reptiles native to the Mobile area. The marvelous creatures fascinate an audience while helping to dispel typical fear of these animals. This program typically includes turtles, snakes and an alligator.
- The Honey and Hives Road Show educates the audience in the amazements of the honey bee, a most important pollinator. Students and adults will be mesmerized by the daily life of the honey bee. Instruction is delivered by a Master Beekeeper, and this program typically includes an observation beehive with live bees.
- The Nocturnal Animal Road Show, our newest road show offering, offers the audience a look into the animals that are active at night. Audiences are captivated by the interesting lives these nocturnal animals lead after dark. Participating animals normally include an alligator, an opossum and owls.
In addition, we can customize any of our regular on-site programs to meet the needs of the teachers at the schools.
Programs are well received
We are so grateful to report the outreach programs are well received by the students. We function best outdoors so many of these programs are held outside where social distancing can be maximized. The teacher response has been positive, and they seem to appreciate the new programming.
We recently had the opportunity to hear Cade Kistler, the interim director for Mobile Baykeeper, speak at one of our teacher professional developments. He noted that regarding our local ecosystem, “With great biodiversity comes great responsibility.” This really resonated as one of our primary goals is to empower students to make choices as adults that make the most sense for the environment. We are so grateful that we have been given the opportunity to go to the mountain and continue to serve our students and teachers in this new and exciting way.
*Tracy Delcambre contributed to this blog.*
Meet the author
Tracy Jay, Ed.D.
Director, Environmental Studies Center
Tracy Jay is a member of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium's Engagement and Education Team. She is the director of the Mobile County Public School System's Environmental Studies... Read more
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