COLUMBIANA COUNTY It's their nature to learn, so teachers go to Wyoming

The teachers saw bear, bison, bald eagles, antelope, mule deer and coyotes.
SALINEVILLE -- Tonyea Kellison said she learned more during a two-week summer stint in the Wyoming mountains than in any teaching courseshe has ever taken.
The primary Title I teacher from the Southern Local district is one of several Columbiana County educators selected to attend a summer "Environmental Science for Elementary Teachers" graduate-level course in the Yellowstone/Grand Teton National Parks region in Wyoming.
"When your classroom happens to be alpine meadows filled with wildflowers, studying vegetation and animal habitats atop mountains and discussing volcanos while sitting in a dormant one, it just can't get any better," Kellison said. "To bring this excitement and wonderment to your classroom has to have positive results with your students."
The 40 Ohio teachers in the course used the varied terrain and environs of northwestern Wyoming to gain hands-on experience in geology, botany and zoology that they can apply in their classrooms this fall. Participants stayed at a ranch at a 7,700-foot elevation and made daily treks into the Wind River Mountains. They also heard American Indian stories to use for environmental teaching in class.
Animals in habitat
Kellison said the group saw bears, herds of bison, bald eagles, antelope, mule deer and coyotes, all in their natural habitat. They also saw the devastation left by 1988 forest fires in Yellowstone, and how burned-out trees nurture young trees next them, she added.
"I am so privileged to have had this unique learning experience," she said.
The two-week course was offered by Miami University in Oxford and provided by the university and an Eisenhower Grant administered by the Ohio Board of Regents.
Other Columbiana County teachers to participate were Christine Laughlin, an East Liverpool sixth-grade math teacher; Susan Kershner, an instructional technology coordinator for the Crestview schools; Steve Hall, an East Liverpool middle school social studies teacher; John Smith, an East Liverpool sixth-grade science/language arts teacher; Bonnie Goltz, a second-grade teacher from St. Aloysius in East Liverpool; Wendy Sternagle, an East Liverpool elementary school art teacher; and Jen Johnson, who also teaches elementary-level art in Columbiana County.