by Cheyenne Seel, Senior
On October 25 a group of eleven students and Mrs. Vanderhoef went to the New York State Outdoor Education Association Convention at the Hilton in downtown Albany.
The New York State Outdoor Education Association is a professional organization that promotes interdisciplinary lifelong learning in, for and about the outdoors and seeks to inspire appreciation of the environment by all people. The convention lasted for four days.
We were there for day two of the convention. Cullen Obrien, James Mayer and I first attended a workshop about recycling. The presenter talked about what can be recycled, what happens when things are recycled and what things are made out of recycled materials. The presenter kept the workshop exciting and entertaining. We played a game, and we all got a pencil made out of recycled money. That was really cool.
Jesse David, Ryan Reichelt, Seiji Akira, Vincent Scott and Caleb Hendricks attended a workshop on white tailed deer and how to use all of its parts, both historical and present time. The discussion also was about hunting and its history. The guys thought it was very useful for Envirothon.
We then listened to the keynote speaker, Joseph Bruchac. He was a man of Indian descent who has written many books and does a lot of public speaking about Indian heritage. He played four Indian instruments for us and sung in the native tongue for the Indian culture. It was really interesting.
We attended another workshop where we learned about the parts of the fish and observed the use of shell-less eggs to explain migration. We dissected a white fish. It was a lot of fun!
After that, we had lunch and then went to the Hudson River and learned about the clarity of the water, the temperature of the water and the pH value of the water. We determined that the river was healthy. It was very interesting but also cold. We had a lot of fun, and the convention presenters were really great and taught me a lot. It will certainly help me with Envirothon this year. It was very educational, and I hope Mrs. Vanderhoef takes kids next year.
