http://blog.epa.gov/students/2012/12/bringing-the-textbook-to-life/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bringing-the-textbook-to-life An Environmental Blog for Students Tue, 21 May 2013 13:14:34 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 http://blog.epa.gov/students/2012/12/bringing-the-textbook-to-life/#comment-1291 Darla Mon, 20 May 2013 02:53:55 +0000 http://blog.epa.gov/students/?p=862#comment-1291 Hi Crystal, my name is Darla and I am also a current AP Environmental Science student in New Orleans, LA. I am glad that your AP Environmental Science class was able to take field trips and have those first-hand experiences to see the “textbook be brought to life”. My class also had those eye-opening experiences. My teacher always provided visuals for our lessons and had different guest speakers as well to help us fully understand the concepts we were learning in APES. In the beginning of our school year, we went on a field trip to our City Park and we planted over 300 bald cypress trees and Nuttall oak trees to restore the forests that were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. My teacher has been doing this field trip for her AP Environmental Science classes since 2006. The trees that we planted were first seeded and grown in our Coastal Roots tree nursery at my school. The trees were then brought over to City Park. It was such a fun, muddy experience! Dr. Pam Blanchard of (Louisiana State University) LSU Coastal Roots taught us how to plant the trees with dibbles, ever heard of that? This field trip has taught me that natural disasters can bring people together to restore damaged ecosystems. I enjoyed this field trip and it has motivated me to continue restoration ecology in my community. I cannot wait to revisit the site for years to come and see the trees that my class helped plant. I am glad to have taken the AP Environmental Science class and I am glad that you enjoyed your experience as an AP Environmental student as well.

]]>