TERC Environmental News:

Subject: Diné students apply wildlife education skills

By Matthew Zierenberg
NAU Environmental Education Program Coordinator
Navajo Hopi Observer - 05/22/2007

On April 7, a group of 35 students and five teachers gathered at the edge of a typical high walled sandstone canyon of the Southwest, near the Navajo National Monument in northern Arizona.

The students silently scanned the sky with binoculars nearly glued to their faces, as they searched the canyon winds for a conservation icon, the Peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus). They do this without prodding or coaxing, without threats of disciplinary action for assumed misbehavior; they are engaged in the moment and the task at hand. Teachers stand spellbound as they witness their students in what must be some strange state of hypnosis.

The silence is broken with a question, "What in the world was that?" Everyone turns to the student who spoke with wide-eyed expressions of "Well, what was it?" The only description the student is able to give is, "It was FAST and gray (pause) or blue?" With renewed effort, everyone trains their binoculars to the area where "it" was last seen. Within minutes, everyone is enjoying a rare glimpse into the life of a wild bird of prey as it dives, glides, hovers and soars on the canyon breezes. They have found what they came to find and the excitement of the moment is bubbling over in huddled conversations around field guides. Comments such as, "Look for its black mask" or "Did you see its pointed wings?" or "Look, it says it can fly up to 200 mph," float around the overlook.

We have just witnessed a (far too rare) moment of true learning-where subject, student and excitement meet to create a reference point that lasts a lifetime. It is logical to think about whether or not this experience could be recreated in a classroom setting. Was this simply an event entirely dependent upon the cosmos; this bird and these students aligning in this wild place to create a supernova of learning? What if these students had not chosen to wake early and peer over the guardrails of the civilized world into the wilderness beyond? Would we have ever been able to give them this sort of experience within four walls and a ceiling?

As these thoughts flow like the winds through the canyon below, it is realizes that this experience had its beginnings in the classroom. There, these students grappled with concepts of conservation, manipulated binoculars to focus on flash cards of common Arizona birds, flipped through field guides to "out-identify" their peers, and laughed at strangled pronunciations of strange scientific names.

What we have really experienced this day is education applied. With the application of education, comes understanding, excitement, passion and respect. This has not been rote memorization of facts and figures, or forced regurgitation in the form of standardized tests. This has been the manifestation of efforts in education revealed through real life, real time, and real people. This has been learning at its finest, learning from a source of knowledge, learning from the wildlife and the wild places themselves.

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