April is National Volunteer Month and the Gideon Lincecum Chapter (GLC) of Texas Master Naturalists is leading the way following two of our largest educational events of the year, the Brenham Land, Water, & Wildlife Expedition and the Giddings ISD 5th grade field day in Washington and Lee counties, respectively. Between these two events, chapter members helped give more than 500 students a day of learning and exploring the natural world through the chapter’s interactive – and innovative – programming.
Stories contributed by GLC President Sheri Wilcox and Communications Director Lori Buffum
Giddings ISD 5th Grade Field Day
Hosted at the beautiful Parker Ranch and powered by volunteers from TMN, TPWD, and Texas AgriLife, nearly 150 Giddings ISD students experienced a fun-filled day of learning outdoors at various nature-based stations.
For the Nature Reflections station, students emulated the early naturalists, recording their observations in nature journals. Some of Sheri’s favorites were the bee sleeping in a winecup, the bee-mimic robber fly, and the widely varying shades of green in the foliage.
Sugar fueled the students at the Run for Your Life station, where candy represented food stored in the quail’s crop. Students had to gather food while avoiding predators to survive. As heard through the grapevine, Assistant State Coordinator Mary Pearl Meuth was quite a ferocious apex predator.
The Stream trailer crew helped students create a river and demonstrated the action of flowing water when they turned on the river. Insects were the object of the insect sweep, with only one net falling victim to some very enthusiastic sweeping. Students also tried out their fishing skills, some for the first time, and caught a record number of fish. At the Bird Adaptations station, bird beaks were simulated with a variety of tools. The students experimented with the tools to figure out which was most effective for collecting different types of food.
The weather was perfect. The students were engaged. The lunch sponsored by the Lee County Wildlife Association kept us going through the afternoon. The volunteers were fantastic, exhibiting enthusiasm and flexibility. It was a successful day all around!
Expedition Day for Brenham Junior High Students
A glorious day out on a local ranch with 27 of my best friends (Texas Master Naturalists) guiding 360 7th graders through 9 Land, Water, and Wildlife activity/learning stations. And that’s a wrap for our biggest event of the year! – Lori Buffum
On Tuesday, March 18, in partnership with the Texas Wildlife Association, Brenham ISD, and helpers from Texas Parks & Wildlife, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension and several other community organizations, our GLC volunteers were stationed around 9 different activities on the Kolkhorst Ranch. The students were divided into small groups and spent the day rotating through the hands-on activities which included Rainfall Simulation, Stream Trailer, Web of Life, Color Scavenger Hunt, Run for Your Life, Quail CSI, Soils, Prairie Ecosystems, and Macroinvertebrate investigation.
Thanks so much to our dedicated “Expedition Team” that includes chapter members who have volunteered year after year for this big event (some for 11+ years dating back to LANDS events) as well as brand new chapter members who are in this year’s training class.
Here’s the team (photo at the top): Abigail Wright, Amanda Jones, Betty Scardino, Bill Fisher, Chris Morrison, Chuck Babb, Cindy McMorran, Daniel Lewis, Debra Healy, Donna Mueller, Frank Michel, Georgia Canfield, Jaci Elliott, Jacquie Pritchard, Jim Kelley, John Gardner, John Pritchard, Jon Watkins, Judy Deaton, Karen Gardner, Kathy Lewman, Ken English, Laura Smith, Lori Buffum, Maria Dahlberg, Marsha Carden, Mike Schumann, Nita Tiemann, Robert Mott, Sheri Wilcox, and Tim Brooking.
