THE FIELD-TRIP SCHOOL

STORY AND PHOTOS
BY GREG GARDNER

A school just for field trips? That’s what the Environmental Studies Center in Jensen Beach has been to Martin County students for the past 37 years. Since its opening, generations of schoolchildren have walked through its doors to learn more about the Indian River Lagoon and other South Florida habitats.

While the center has several aquariums with a variety of fish, the students always spend part of their ultimate field trip at the beach or on the Indian River. The various sights, sounds and smells generate plenty of oohs and aahs during the day as the children get up close with an alligator, turtles, fish and, if they’re lucky, gopher tortoises that nest on the property.

“This should be typical of all education processes so kids can get hands-on lessons in math, science and art,” says V. James Navitsky, Martin County school superintendent for 21 years and a strong ESC supporter. “It’s been outstanding for the school system. The kids learn about quality of life and the things that give us that quality of life.”

One of the special assets of the center, which is part of the Martin County school system, is the staff, including the four teachers, all of whom have been named teacher of the year at other schools. “It’s fun to go to work because the kids want to be there,” says John Wakeman, a 24-year teacher at the center. “I taught science in middle school and the kids didn’t always want to be there. It’s a much easier sell at the Environmental Studies Center. Kids today get very few field trips, so it’s a unique experience.”

VISUAL PROPS
Wakeman is at the top of his game whether he is mesmerizing first-graders or seventh-graders. They hang on his every word because he asks them questions to keep their minds whirring. By the end of a typical session, almost every student has either been called on for a question or has come to the front of the class to help with visual props.

“Being a baby sea turtle is dangerous and hard work,” Wakeman says as the first- graders from Pinewood Elementary School guess at the top 10 killers of baby turtles.

While he loves his work and it shows, Wakeman says there is one drawback to what many teachers would consider a dream job. “It’s difficult having students for just one day because you can’t develop long-term relationships,” he says. But, he says, “Most days when they get on the bus, it’s been a good day for both the teacher and the students who have had fun learning together.”

“It’s my second time here,” says 7-year-old first-grader Camryn Bowser. “It’s cool because I like all the animals around this place. I like seeing the turtles. They are nice
to me.”

Abby Singh, a 9-year-old fourth-grader from The Pine School, understands the center’s mission. “It’s really fun,” she says. There’s lots of animals and they (ESC staff) are helping the environment.” Students from private schools usually visit the center when county students are taking FCAT tests or have been dismissed early.

PROGRAM CONTINUITY
“I’ve been bringing kindergarten children here for 35 years,” says Pinewood teacher Maurine Prokop. “The paint changes and they get some new things, but the overall program stays the same. The kids all want to come here. Some kids beg their parents to bring them here on Saturdays. It’s hands-on. No one tells them ‘Don’t touch.’ ”

Art is an integral part of the center’s curriculum and the walls are a visual candy store with colorful murals of various seascapes and underwater vistas.

The program is an extremely organized effort with no student returning the next year to a rerun of the previous year’s activities.

Kindergarten children focus on land and sea turtles, their different habitats and endangerment while first-graders study manatees and other mammals, including man’s effect on them.

Second-graders learn about birds, food chains and animals’ adaptations to survive in their environment. Third-grade students use seine nets in the saltwater grass flats of the Indian River Lagoon. Fourth-graders visit the mangrove communities in the river in search of the plants and animals that live there.

Fifth-graders travel by boat to explore a spoil island. Sixth-grade students spend a half-day boating and a half-day at the center, studying water quality and the types of river bottom. Seventh-graders examine wetlands and their native plants.

BEYOND SCHOOL
As if the staff didn’t have enough responsibility shepherding more than 12,000 students through the center each year, two summer camps are open to the public.

Also making the yearly field trip are environmental science and marine biology students from Martin County’s high schools.

The center’s supporters have always stepped up in tough times to make sure it stays open. They see the Environmental Studies Center as an example of the best education money can buy in the fight to save our natural resources.

“The Martin County School District invests $500,000 annually to keep the center running, but the benefits to the community, the children and the future far outweigh the costs,” says ESC coordinator Diane Pierce. In addition, the Environmental Studies Council typically donates about $100,000 yearly.

“When we need things, they come through for us,” says Pierce. “The council raises money to buy equipment, supplies and fish food. Last year it was two new engines for our boat and a pickup truck.”