Resource Teachers: Down to a science

It's not too much of a stretch for kindergartners to pretend that they're trees, and that played perfectly into Kris Hackbart's lesson plan.

So there they were, 19 kindergartners at Lakes International Language Academy (LILA) in Forest Lake, "rooted" on paper plates, grabbing up yellow, blue and green Popsicle sticks, representing sunshine, rain and nutrients.

"Trees let the water rain down, and the sun shine down," Hackbart told them. "They send their roots down deep so they can get all they need."

Hackbart isn't the students' classroom teacher; she was hired by the Rice Creek Watershed District as part of the Resource Teachers program, which sends folks with backgrounds in natural science to share their passions with kids as substitute teachers.

Once upon a time, the watershed district's environmental education coordinator, Dawn Pape, worked as a classroom teacher and as a sub.

"I just thought there had to be a better way," she said. "I was actually subbing, and I always had a bag of tricks. Sometimes teachers had to leave suddenly and there was nothing there. I realized kids just loved the lessons I knew something about, and I was passionate about."

The program was piloted at Centennial Middle School in Lino Lakes two years ago, and now, with a $20,000 earmark from the Watershed District, it's active at four more schools, Century Junior High School and Forest View Elementary School, in Forest Lake; LILA, a charter school, and St. Mary of the Lake in White Bear Lake.

Teachers' backgrounds include work in zoos, camps, national parks and schools. They create curricula based on their interests and expertise.

"Forcing a watershed curriculum on them is defeating the point of the program," Pape said, summing up the subject matter as "broad-based natural resources, recycling, trees, air quality, water and animals."

"Any connection with the natural world is going to connect the person with their resources and water resources," she added.

Red stick, blue stick

Back in the classroom, it was all the kindergartners could do to stay rooted; they wobbled on their feet. And there were a few squabbles over resources.

Hackbart circled the room, commenting on the balance (or lack) of resources.

In a second round, Hackbart introduced red sticks. Students grabbed them up along with the others. What were they? Fire.

"If you have more reds than you have blues, then I think you died this year," Hackbart said.

Clasping her handful of red sticks, Gracie Solomonson lay down on the rug, pretending to be dead.

"In a forest, sometimes you get what you need," Hackbart told the students. "Sometimes the bugs would eat you up and you'd die."