Pictures

Bearitage Field Station

Field Trip 2010

     On 20 October 2010 a unique GK12 activity was conducted for 77 Harrisburg Middle School 5^th graders.  The students were taken to the Bearitage Research and Learning Facility near Whitehall, AR for an all-day field trip.  The construction of this facility was completed in March 2010 and this field day was the first public school education program to occur at the field site.  The students were engaged in four different one hour sessions throughout the course of the day.  There were radio telemetry, benthic insect collection and identification, herpetology, and craft building stations.  The students gained invaluable hands-on learning experiences and worked with technology and organisms many, if not most, had never used or observed.  The students were learning about ecosystems in the classroom and the activity provided a connection to the material they had been studying.

     Mr. Scott House’s efforts are greatly appreciated as he owns the 1,200 acre Bearitage Farms and made tremendous monetary contributions in the construction of the Bearitage Research and Learning Facility.  Mr. House is clearly dedicated to education and conservation and hopes that additional events such as this field day will be conducted in the future.  There were also multiple Arkansas State University GK12 fellows (Teresa Brueggen, Jeremy Everitts, Jonathan Stanley, and Amanda White) and additional graduate students (Brehan Furfey, Sara Johnson, and Rachel Welicky) who were pivotal in making the event such a great success by preparing and conducting the activities at each station.