The ADOPT-A-SCHOOL program will begin to prepare the grade school students for a career with the Forest Service by educating them about natural resources. By communicating with the grade school students now about the Forest Service, we will be cultivating a future pool of diverse candidates for employment.

The ADOPT-A-SCHOOL program would be working with students from Kindergarten to Sixth Grade in a variety of activities. The ADOPT-A-SCHOOL program will involve each Ranger District on all eighteen National Forests in Region 5. Each Ranger District "adopts" a grade school that is located on or near their District. Throughout the school year each District will plan field trips and career days that will show the relationship of academics to forest management and jobs. Environmental education days will also be conducted to instill the values of conservation and the wise use and management of natural resources.

The Forest Service realizes many benefits from this program. We will be actively involved in community service by educating the students about natural resources and by giving them a positive introduction to the Forest Service. Through this program we can plant the seeds for future careers in natural resources and create a pool of qualified, interested, and informed people from diverse backgrounds for Commencement 2000.

Commencement 2000 is a Regional pilot program that is working with the top twenty (20) students from several schools in the Bay Area. These students are being provided a natural resource education and are being prepared for a possible future Forest Service career. The students establish their goals early and the Forest Service builds a broader recruitment base in the non-white communities for the future. This pilot program, if successful, will be implemented Region wide within a few years.

The ADOPT-A-SCHOOL program complements Commencement 2000 and can be operational within a few months. This program will be exposing the students of all ethnic backgrounds to career opportunities in the Forest Service, but it differs from Commencement 2000 in that it is not confined to the Bay Area or to select students. The ADOPT-A-SCHOOL program includes all the students in a chosen school. There are eighteen (18) National Forests in Region 5. If every Ranger District adopts one school there will be a total of seventy-nine (79) schools throughout California. In only a few years we will have made a strong and positive impression on thousands of youngsters.

We will educate future users of the Forest to a more wise and rational use of our natural resources. We will teach the future Forest users HOW to think with a deeper and better informed understanding of our environment. The students will learn about different natural resource career opportunities and they will increase their knowledge of, and value for, our natural resources.

The program will begin with some simple introductions to natural resources and increase in the number of activities, projects, and complexity as the students advance in grade. The ADOPT-A-SCHOOL program will grow with the children. We will learn as we progress, building the curriculum to fit the age groups. Eventually, the program will encompass all age groups, Kindergarten through Sixth Grade, and we will have built a strong learning/understanding experience. What an idea-to grow with the kids!

For example, Smokey the Bear and Woodsy Owl will visit the Kindergarten and First Grade classes. Movies will be shown, such as, "The Man Who Planted Trees" and "Smokey's Story" and slides of the forest, wildlife, plants, and recreation will be presented. The Kindergarten class will be provided with a plot of land on which to plant trees that they will nurture and monitor through the years.

Kindergarten students will be introduced to Project Wild, sponsored by the California Department of Fish and Game, and Project Learning Tree, sponsored by the American Forest Foundation (AFF), Western Region Environmental Education Council (WREEC), and the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Both of these projects are continuing education programs in natural resources which the students will work with through the Six Grade.

Both Project Learning Tree and Project Wild workshops teach classroom instructors and environmental educators how to teach their students about wildlife and the world around them. In these programs, the teachers will be working with the students using the guides provided with ready-made lessons and activities that will be used to supplement existing curricula.

These two (2) workshops and the guides are provided free of charge to the participants.

The First Graders will go back to the plot of land they planted a year before to learn about life cycles, data collection, and interpretation. The structure of a tree and how a tree functions (how a tree grows) will be explained to them.

The First Graders will be presented "The Impact Monster" skit. The purpose of this skit is to introduce "Leave No Trace" wilderness use ethics to the students in a way that allows participation and includes discussion within the skit. This skit teaches the children what effect people have on the wilderness and what each person can do to lessen the effect.

The Second through Sixth Grade students will participate in field trips to all the departments on the Ranger District and the Forests Supervisor's Office. Each department or staff will explain to the students the function of their position or department. The students will have some "hands-on" experience, such as, the deployment of fire shelters, packing hose, planting trees, measuring trees, hooting for owls, counting fish, making maps, greeting visitors at the front desk, typing and printing documents on the Data General (DG). They will be shown that the Forest is being managed for multiple uses and values.

One project will be to teach the Second Grade students about soil erosion and people's impact on the soil. They will also be taught how we can minimize the impacts. A location will be picked that has easy access for the children. A gully due to soil erosion will be found, if possible. The first year the students will measure and mark the gully. Every other year they will go back and measure the changes. A discussion about the changes will be generated. The causes such as man, cows, vegetation, wind, water, snow, etc. will be considered.

The Second Graders will also make a large poster depicting the different careers they have learned about in the Forest Service. This will be displayed at the Ranger District Office and the Forest Supervisor's Office.

Each grade level will continue with Project Learning Tree and Project Wild. The Third and Fourth Graders will do many of the projects that are in these two (2) programs.

The Fifth and Sixth Grade students will learn about watershed management, natural resources, fish and wildlife, engineering, lands management, etc., in more detail than presented to them in earlier years. They will also finish the Project Learning Tree and Project Wild programs up to the Sixth Grade level. Forest Service employees will help the students with their school projects on a one-on-one basis. By the end of the Sixth Grade the students will have a good understanding of the relationship and interactions between man and nature.

Some of the class projects the students will do are: Build a model of a watershed, list activities that people do in watersheds, make a salmon life cycle display, collect rocks and soil samples, collect tree and plant species, make an endangered species display, and acquire an insect collection.

Another project the students will do is study a watershed and use it as a focal point of their science curriculum. The watershed will be a living laboratory in which students participate in hands-on activities, making science directly applicable and relevant to their lives. The Kindergarten students will follow, for the next six years, the growth of the trees they planted, studying concepts such as life cycles, photosynthesis, succession, data collection and interpretation, habitat needs, topography, soils, and forest management.

At each grade level students will be involved with community action projects where they will educate members of the community on different aspects of their watershed. At the younger grade levels, the program focuses on observation and appreciation. As the students move into the middle grades, they study relationships and interactions. This will help the students develop a land ethic and a sense of stewardship toward their environment and community.

You can contact Jo Ann at (916) 842-6131.