Our Trip to Baldhead Island

I know the students are going to write a lot about what we've done so far but I still wanted to share about Baldhead. I invited a professor from UNCW to join us about the hike and teach the students about the maritime forest. It's always interesting to have university professors work with high school students but Dr. Snider was wonderful with them. He didn't underestimate them or teach way above their heads. He went out of his way to make it personal for the students. We owe him a big thank you for such a great day.

It was great to watch the students hiking through the maritime forest with Dr. Snider. As he talked, you could see the light bulbs going on. The students really "got" why we're doing this project. Climate change is such an abstract/large idea that sometimes it's hard to really connect. The point of this project is to see the local impacts and learn what you can do to protect the area. The students kept asking "why isn't anyone studying this area?" "why isn't anyone doing anything to protect it?" I let them know that is why we're doing this project. The first trip we took was fun but this one really brought it home that we'll see some major changes if we don't do anything to stop it. It made me very proud of them.

After our hike we stopped to have lunch on the beach and check out a different type of habitat.

It was a lovely day for lunch on the beach. We found some great biofacts such as shells and skate egg cases.

Before catching the ferry off the island, the students asked if we could climb the light house.

109 stairs later, we made it to the top. Mr. Bishop had some trouble with the tiny stairs and little opening to the top.

But we got him there. The students loved the view from the top. They thought it was a great comparison of the developed vs undeveloped portions of the island. Evan has some great shots I'm sure he'll share. When we made it back down the light house, the students had a bit of a photo shoot. They came up with some great ones. This is Mr. Bishop trying to make the students look like giants.

I got a good one of them making bear faces to show school spirit. Notice Mr. Bishop's lovely bear hat.

It was a great day full of learning and fun. We couldn't have asked for better weather or a better teacher. As an educator, it was everything I could have asked for. I'm sure the students will tell you how much fun they had as well.
Thanks! Megan