The second day will be a field trip to the Donnelley Wildlife Management Area in Green Pond, S.C., in the Lowcountry. We will use native species of live animals and creative visual aids to enrich our presentations. Workshop activities will be hands-on projects that teachers can adapt to their school settings, Mr. Mills said. An example of such an activity is construction of a 2-foot high drift fence around a small natural area on or near their campus. Because the Energy Department is interested in monitoring animal populations to determine effects of its operations on wildlife, Ecology Laboratory scientists use the fence, which is lined with buried buckets on both sides, to study population dynamics of reptiles, amphibians, insects and small mammals that inhabit natural areas.
Animals entering and exiting the area fall into buckets, which researchers check daily.
In school outdoor classroom settings, students check the buckets, then mark and release animals, and later recapture them. Students record animals' size, sex, movements and behavior on data sheets and in a computerized database. Award-winning environmental educators Mr. Mills and Dr. Gibbons will be the primary instructors for the teacher workshops. Together, they have more than 40 years of experience in environmental education.