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AP ES in the Field: How to Plan, Fund, and Implement Expeditions
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by Pat Raynock
Palisades High School
Kintnersville, Pennsylvania
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Forging an Emotional Bond
I have been taking students into the field for environmental studies since I began my teaching career in the early 1970s. An essay in Stephen Jay Gould's Eight Little Piggies: Reflections in Natural History best states my philosophy for fieldwork. He writes, "Yet I also appreciate that we cannot win this battle to save species and environments without forging an emotional bond between ourselves and nature as well -- for we will not fight to save what we do not love (but only appreciate in some abstract sense).... Let [the programs] continue and expand, because we must have visceral contact [with nature] in order to love."
In the paragraphs that follow, I have outlined the strategies I use to implement my field program for students. I hope these ideas will be helpful to AP Environmental Science (AP ES) teachers as they begin framing their programs for the upcoming school year.
NAME your field program(s). My programs are called PEAT (Palisades Eco-Adventure Team) and Palisades AP Marine Research Team. Fold the name of your school into the program name and tie your program into the existing curriculum. Have your students develop a letterhead and logo. All correspondence, year after year, will be identified with your programs, and the name recognition you build will be helpful in generating the funding you need.
ENGAGE some of your students to act as your core team leaders and give them a group title. (The name I give this group is the Independent-Study Science Research Team). Be careful in your choices. The students you select will become the heartbeat of the program, your steering committee, and your worker bees. They will link incoming students to the work that has been done in the past and will be your team leaders while in the field. Set up an independent study setting (clubhouse style) so that they have their own domain.
DEFINE the scope of your program for the year. This gives you a target for annual funding. Stick to that target each year and only change it as your program expands or changes. Think big up front, and then go for it. Once you set a goal, you must follow through so that you build credibility with both the students and your sponsors. I lead two, eight-day field expeditions each year with about 25 students per program. During the 2003-2004 school year, I took some students to the national park on St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, in January and some students to Utah and the canyons in the spring. None of the funds for these programs are provided by the school.
BUILD your own program, with your own educational goals. If it is an AP ES expedition, then fold AP ES labs into your program. Use the time as a total immersion for your students. I do not recommend going anywhere with a commercial travel group. Those are very expensive, and sponsors don't like them because they're not "homegrown." Commercial enterprises are "trips," not expeditions, for the most part, although they are getting better each year at understanding our need to do fieldwork, not just tour. Use your judgment, but I'll bet you can do a better job than the commercial enterprises that are looking to make a profit.
SELECT a time slot. Look at your calendar for the upcoming year. Find a period during which there are holiday breaks so that you don't miss more than three or four regular school days. Typically there is time during winter or spring break or over holidays, like Memorial Day. During the 2003-2004 school year, we traveled at the end of January and at the end of May.
CONSTRUCT your budget. Make sure you include not only travel expenses, but also equipment. Tents can often be borrowed from local Boy Scout groups. Contact the park in which you wish to stay and look for ways to avoid fees and taxes. For example, you can submit your lesson plans to any national park along with a fee-waiver request, and upon review, the park officers can waive entrance fees.
MEET with parents. Tell them what you're planning and solicit a few of them to form a parent committee. They will be your voice when you go to the school board to get permission to take your students away overnight. Tell the parents how much you expect the program to cost, and be accurate. This means that you have done your homework first and put together an overall budget that matches your itinerary.
When I meet with parents, I explain the three funding options the program offers: full scholarship to students who need financial help; matching payments, where the parent pays one-half of the cost and the program pays the other half; or the parent pays the entire cost for their child. I give each parent a financial commitment letter, ask them to go home and consider their financial need, then return the letter to me (in a sealed envelope) so that I know exactly how much money we have and how much more is needed to fund the expedition. The students are unaware of who is being funded, in whole or in part, by the program. Usually I have one or two students whose parents can pay for their trek, while most parents pay part of the expenses, and about one-third are on scholarship.
CREATE your funding projects. Every funding piece I do must fit into what I call a "win-win" scenario. Both your students and the investor must "get" something. Usually, the students get the money and the investor gets some service. Have your school create an account for your group and list each student separately. As the funds come in, place them into a specific student's log of money until every log is filled. Cross-reference your entries so that you can show, at any time, where the money has come from for each student. Make sure that your school audits the accounts each year, and tell your supporters that you have the school audit your funding. I do not use any program funds to pay for my expedition expenses, which allows me to tell funding partners that all of the money goes to the student program. Here are some of the funding schemes that have worked for our programs over the years:
- Create a Boy Scout educational post for your group. Then the Boy Scouts can cover insurance while you're in the field. (Boy Scouts get a large number of "scouts" to report for their district, you get insurance... win-win.)
- Coordinate an after-school nature camp for early elementary education. We have three-week programs in all of our elementary schools. Each participating elementary-school child pays $30 ($10 per week) for a two-hour after-school program. During the 2003-2004 school year, we earned about $4,000 from these camps. (The "big" kids teach, the little kids learn... win-win.)
- Go to local Kiwanis clubs, Lions (and Lionesses) clubs, American Legion posts, Rod and Gun clubs, civic associations, and garden clubs and negotiate funding for one student in exchange for your group presenting an evening program. We have several "environmental" talks that the students give (with teacher support) along with a PowerPoint presentation about our field program. (You get dinner and funding, they get dinner and a presentation... win-win.)
- Enlist your local businesses as "environmental supporters." Compose a letter that details the program and explain that their sponsorship will be used to fund a particular student. Ask each business to be a "contributor," a "sponsor," or a "partner." Our local newspaper gives us a block of space to list all of our supporting businesses, which we categorize into three groups. When the businesses find out about the different categories, many raise their donation so they can be in the "high roller" group. Banks and ecologically "bad" companies are really good here. Car dealerships and real estate developers are also very supportive. Tell all businesses they will be listed in any advertising for the program.
- Offer the students' public-speaking service to each business. Be frank about finances and tell them what you need and how they can help out. Do not be afraid to ask for $25 from small businesses or $2,500 from larger ones. Working on businesses takes time, so start early. First contact them by phone and speak with a public-relations person, the person who runs the business, or anyone who will listen. Then drop off the pledge letter. Follow up with another phone call. Send a thank you note and give a certificate to every supporter. (You get the bulk of your money from local businesses, they get to "feel good" with public-relations advertising... win-win.)
- Consult with wealthy, philanthropic private citizens in your community. (The students will probably know who they are more often than you will.) Call them up, introduce yourself, and ask for their help. Any citizen from our community who contributes, regardless of the amount, is deemed an "environmental partner" (like the upper-level businesses) because their donation has come from their own assets, and this shows lots of heart. (We get the money, they get connected with the kids... win-win.)
- We hold a plant sale in the spring and fall. We recruit a local nursery to donate unsold plant materials (shrubs mostly) in the fall and we sell them to the faculty. In the spring, we sell hybrid, registered daylilies that we dig and package. We also hire out our kids in the spring to do yard cleanup and planting, working with our PTO. (The kids get outside and learn how to earn money, citizens in the community get plant materials and/or yard work done for them... win-win).
We, as teachers, must do what we can to take our students to nature, not just talk about the earth's systems from indoors. I hope the tips I have shared will help other schools overcome some of the obstacles we all face when trying to facilitate off-campus programs for our students.
Pat Raynock is a senior teacher at Palisades High School in Kintnersville, Pennsylvania. She also works as an instructor for the American Museum of Natural History in its Seminars on Science online education program for teachers. Her specialty is deep sea hydrothermal vents, and her work on the ocean floor resulted in the discovery of hemoglobin in a deep sea vent copepod.
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