Sawtooth Science Institute connects learning to life
Nature freaks get a guide
on the side
By TRAVIS PURSER
Express Staff Writer
Sometimes the difference between students
being bored or enthusiastic depends on whether teachers act like "the
sage on the stage or the guide on the side," says Christen Gertschen.
Christen Gertschen talks about one of
the exhbits at Sawtooth Science Institute, a Ketchum-based outreach field
study center of the Idaho Museum of Natural History and Idaho State
University. Express photo by Willy Cook
What she’s referring to is experiential
learning. It’s one thing to listen to an accomplished scholar drone on
about a subject. But an interdisciplinary approach to education can put
the three "Rs" into context with field trips and hands-on
projects, connecting students’ lives to the learning process.
Gertschen is the director of the Sawtooth
Science Institute, a Ketchum-based outreach field study center of the
Idaho Museum of Natural History and Idaho State University.
The center serves as a clearinghouse for a
variety of resources, programs, projects and exhibits—all geared toward
the local and regional study of natural science.
Teachers, students and the general public
have participated in her classroom projects and field trips that she says
are essential to awakening a person’s interest in a subject.
"It’s really easy to sit in a
classroom and study flora and fauna," she said, but actually visiting
nature where it lives gives new appreciation. People "become
aware."
"I’ve seen it over and over and
over. They become really passionate when they see it in the wild."
Gertschen has her own reasons for being
passionate these days. For about a decade, she has run the institute out
of her East Fork home and a tiny space in the Environmental Resource
Center in Ketchum. But, now, thanks to an $80,000 grant from the Idaho
Community Foundation and an agreement with the Ketchum/Sun Valley Heritage
and Ski Museum, the center is taking over one of the museum’s three
buildings.
The new space opened to the public on Dec.
1. It features the Digital Atlas of Idaho--a CD-ROM and Web-based learning
tool created by Idaho State University and the Idaho Museum of Natural
History. The atlas provides a wide range of multi-media information about
Idaho’s geology, geography, history, ecology and biology.
Never heard of the Microsorex? Well, now
you can easily learn that it’s the "aggressive, irascible and
nervous" shrew—the world’s smallest mammal that daily eats its
weight in insect larvae, pupae, snails and worms. Yeah.
The atlas is filled with color photos,
range maps, and sound recordings of many animals.
The center’s new location also provides
more space for a classroom, exhibits and project work areas.
Young students may find themselves
recreating the Earth’s surface with a balloon and modeling clay. Because
the clay shrinks as it dries, the surface of the balloon wrinkles.
Inflating the balloon creates cracks in the clay. The clay ridges
illustrate fault-block mountains on the earth’s surface, and the cracks
illustrate fault-block valleys.
Arguably, the center’s most popular
offerings are its summer workshops, which begin with a variety of
classroom activities, multi-media presentations and discussions.
Participants then move into the natural world to put the information into
context. College professors and school teachers lead the fieldtrips.
Offered from April until August each year,
previous workshop subjects have included birds of prey of the Tetons, the
natural history of Island Park, Sawtooth amphibians and wetlands, and Ice
Ages in central Idaho.
Gertschen said the workshops meet new state
education standards that require public school learning to be hands-on,
investigative and student-centered. At the same time, however, she said
school field trips are becoming less frequent due to liability issues.
"Our society is getting so litigious,
and it’s moving over into our schools," she said. "I hear from
teachers every summer, ‘We can’t do field trips.’"
But Gertschen said she is developing new
audiences.
Increasingly, senior citizens have been
taking the center’s workshops. Gertschen believes that’s because they
usually have the time to participate and Idaho State University offers a
senior discount registration rate of $20 with an additional charge of $5
per credit.
For the future, Gertschen plans to develop
a natural history lecture series at the new space, but for that, she’ll
have to secure more funding. Right now, she’s writing grant proposals.
For more information, call Chris Gertschen
at 726-1832.
