Jul 11th, 2007
IV. Demonstration
Once we returned, we asked students to pick individual “passion projects” related to the Elwha ecosystem that they would personally like to explore further.
Our Tuesday Pull-Out sessions became work and report meetings, which culminated in June with our first annual EHHS Elwha Project Presentation Day.
Each student presented the results of his/her project at an all-school assembly with invited guests, including representatives from the National Park Service and Olympic ESD. Project topics ranged from projected changes in the ecosystem after dam removal, to current effects of alien species, to regional geology, to tribal legends.
The Park Service was so impressed with several books created for teaching younger children about salmon and an ethnobotany study of native plants that we were asked to allow them to digitize the projects for display on their website.
OPI staff members were also impressed with our students and invited a group of students to the OPI board meeting in Seattle in April to explain our participation in the Elwha Project. As teachers, we were extremely pleased with how well the five students spoke of their experiences, which they scripted themselves to accompany a PowerPoint developed from pictures we had taken. Our Superintendent, Dr. Crawford, received letters of praise from a board member and the superintendent of Olympic National Park on their presentation.