Eleven seventh-grade students from Menominee Tribal School learned about human survival skills, animal signs, birds of prey, and how to cross-country ski and snowshoe during a recent visit to Trees For Tomorrow in Eagle River.
Menominee Tribal School has been bringing students to workshops at Trees For Tomorrow — a private, nonprofit natural resources specialty school — for 22 years. The workshops provide students with hands-on learning activities in an outdoor environment.
“I believe that the students from Menominee Tribal School have a better idea of how the concepts stressed by Trees For Tomorrow integrate with their lives on the Menominee Indian Reservation” as a result of the workshop, said Ben Piaskowski, a teacher who accompanied the students.
The Feb. 17-19 visit to Trees For Tomorrow also “may impact future educational and career decisions,” he said.
As part of the educational experience, students learn about food waste and attempt to achieve “zero waste” during their meals in the campus dining hall.
“At the first meal, one of our students took one bite from an apple and threw it in the compost, immediately ending our chances at winning the zero compost award,” Piaskowski said.
It did, however, provide an easy-to-remember lesson reminder.
“The event, henceforth, was referred to as the ‘infamous apple incident of 2014,’” Piaskowski said.
Trees For Tomorrow serves school groups throughout Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois. It provides both daylong and multi-day educational workshops focusing on natural resources management.
Teachers choose from more than 50 courses to customize workshops that best meet the needs of their students.
Financial support from the Bleser Family Foundation in Shawano made it possible for the Menominee Tribal School students to attend the educational workshop at Trees For Tomorrow.
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