East Palestine teacher explores students’ interaction with nature

EAST PALESTINE — High school science teacher Lisa Bircher said she was a bit surprised when she had to identify an oak tree for one of her pupils.

Bircher, who has been teaching in the East Palestine School District since 1993, said she would have expected the adolescents in her class to be able to point out poison ivy, a maple tree and other things commonly seen outdoors.

“Many people believe kids today just don’t have the experience with the outdoors that kids in past years have had,” Bircher said. “My question is whether that is actually true, and if so, why and what are the consequences of this?”

Bircher, who is a doctoral candidate at Kent State University, set out to find some answers. She set her sights on exploring how changes in society have affected adolescents’ abilities to interact with nature. She is scheduled to present some of her findings during the Association for Science Teacher Education conference Jan. 8-10 in Hartford, Conn.

For the complete story, see Friday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com