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| July/August 2016
Coventry Middle School sixth graders combined the power of modern technology
with old-school grit to create a different kind of Earth Day celebration.
Davey's Ken Christensen, senior biologist for Davey Resource Group, joined
eight select students from the Akron, Ohio, middle school to plant 25 trees
during a week-long stream restoration project that eventually saw several
hundred trees planted.
Through non-profit organization Earth Echo's Virtual Tours program, Christensen
and the students shared a tree-planting lesson with hundreds of classrooms
around the world.
Coventry Middle School teacher Jim Trogdon's class set up a Google Hangout,
so students from across the globe could access Christensen's tree lesson and
ask questions. Earth Echo featured the hangout on its website, aerial shots of
the planting were broadcast live and students around the nation asked questions
throughout the demonstration. Christensen taught students a complete tree-
planting lesson, including digging the hole and safe removal from the planting pot.
"It was a great educational opportunity," Christensen said. "The most unselfish
thing we can do is put a tree in the ground."
Trogdon's sixth grade class works collaboratively with Cuyahoga Valley National
Park, The Ohio State University's Stone Lab Aquatic Research Center and The
Wilds in Cumberland, Ohio, to enhance the water sources around the school,
which is surrounded by glacial kettle lakes.
On Earth Day, Davey brought in 750 live stakes, 360 bare root trees and the
25 container trees to be planted around a local stream to restore growth and
create new wildlife habitats.
"It's important to get students outside in nature, even if all the technology has
to come with it," Christensen said.
COMBINING NATURAL AND VIRTUAL WORLDS
DAY
ARBOR
Students work together to plant 25
trees to help restore a local stream.
Students smile knowing they are about
to add to their growing local canopy.
Ken Christensen shows students how
to take a potted plant out of its container
without damaging the roots.
