The cold facts: Kids get lesson in staying alive

By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
YOUNGSTOWN -- Antoine McElroy, 14, likes the outdoors, but he's a little doubtful about his ability to survive in the woods if he got lost.
Antoine was one of 16 Warren East and Western Reserve middle school pupils participating Saturday in Survivor's Club, an enrichment program instructed by honors students from Youngstown State University's physical geography class and their professor Ron Shaklee.
They conducted the program at Bear's Den Cabin in Mill Creek Park.
The pupils enrolled in Warren schools' GEAR UP, or Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, learned about geography of the park, how to find their way using a compass, how to keep warm and some of the things found in the wild that will do for dinner in a pinch.
"I learned about certain bugs that you could eat," said Antoine, an eighth-grader at Reserve.
Would he feast on the critters found under rocks?
"Well, if I had to," Antoine, admitting it's not something he'd look forward to.
$1.6 million grant
Warren schools received the five-year, $1.6 million GEAR UP grant from the U.S. Department of Education to encourage low-income pupils to pursue higher education. The school district received one of 45 GEAR-UP grants awarded nationally out of the 300 districts or institutions that applied.
Survivor's Club continues each Saturday through November at Mill Creek and at Packard Park in Warren.
Shaklee taught the kids how to measure distances outdoors from one object to another using a compass.
Mark Gavin, 13, an eighth-grader at East, walked along studying his compass with Ehrissen Bryant, 11, a sixth-grader at Reserve, at his side counting the steps.
As he explained the intricacies of a compass, Tai-On Henderson, 12, a seventh-grader at East, said he was learning a lot and having a good time.
The cold facts
With snow flurries falling, pupils also learned how to tell temperature using a thermometer and how to measure wind speed with an anemometer.
One of the reasons it feels colder outside when the wind blows is because while the body generates heat, wind carries it away, Shaklee explained holding up the anometer which clocked wind speed at 3 mph.
"I want my heat back," one of the pupils complained.
denise.dick@vindy.com