Volunteer Janet Ellsworth leads a nature lesson for a group of Malabar Intermediate fifth-graders during a field trip to Hemlock Trails and Hemlock Falls.
Malabar Intermediate School fifth-graders completed a cycle of field trips to Hemlock Trails and Hemlock Falls last week, utilizing the nature journaling skills they learned during the previous three weeks.
A different group of students made the trip each day.
Photosynthesis, fungi, lichens and organisms found on and under decomposing logs were among the topics students studied on the Tyger Nature Trail in the woods adjacent to Malabar. They made notes and drawings in their journals.
The nature journaling program is led by Gorman Nature Center volunteers Kate Peresie and Janet Ellsworth, assisted by a dozen other volunteers in conjunction with Malabar teachers.
Peresie explained that the program is designed to help students connect what they are learning in science classes with the real world of nature.
Students now will complete the program with two more weeks of nature journaling at Malabar.
The Richland County Park District, which operates Gorman Nature Center, provided the nature journaling supplies: 5-gallon buckets with lids to carry supplies and serve as seats, clipboards, watercolor pencils, pens and paper.
Naturalists from Gorman and additional volunteers, including several from First Congregational Church, assisted on the field trips. The church also provided overshoe-type boots for the students to wear on the trail and allowed use of their camp, Hemlock Trails, for access to restrooms and a picnic pavilion.