Volunteers Needed!

The information below is from Katie Rankin at the Edith J. Carrier Arboretum at James Madison University. She is asking for help from our volunteers. This would be a VERY fun way to rack up some volunteer hours under General Outreach and Education. Please note the link to a sign up sheet. – Pam Gray, Projects Committee Chair

Monday-Friday, Sept. 11-15 and Monday, Sept. 18  

The programming will be daily from 9:45 to 1:05. We have 4 content stations planned, each rotation lasting 40 minutes. Students will also get a lunch period.  4 of our 6 schools have 4 classes, and 2 of them have 5. So on the days we’re hosting a school with 5 classes, we’ll add in that 5^th group as shown below. 

I’m hoping the Master Naturalists would be able to largely take in hand the leadership of station 1. We will have college students and some other volunteers on hand for providing support assistance to station leaders, so you won’t be alone! 

Station 1 is a lot of fun in my opinion. It has 2 parts: “Just Passing Through” is a movement activity that we’ll do on the tiers of the lawn behind the pond in which students pretend that they are the raindrops of a storm, and we time them as they come barreling down the hill together toward the stream. We’ll have chart paper for producing a bar graph showing how fast the “water” flows following a simple straight gully, then if we introduce curves into the stream, and then if we introduce riparian plantings (some students become trees who tag the ‘raindrops’, which then have to circle the tree 5 times before proceeding downhill). We’ll have a microphone out for this, so you can be heard by the group. 

The other part of station 1 is “Freddy the Fish”, which is a pollution demonstration in which you tell the sad tale of Freddy’s journey to the ocean that is riddled with a variety of pollution sources (erosion, road salt, litter, factory waste, motor oil). The more dramatic, the better, and there’s a script. My favorite part is getting the students to exclaim, “Oh no! Poor Fred!” after each pollution source. 

I will train volunteers on how to do each activity, and we have all the supplies! 

Here is the sign-up link for the leadership roles at this program: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C084FAFAD28A2FDC61-station People are very welcome to sign up for multiple slots (and it will be easier for all if they do!); I just didn’t want to ask someone for a multiple day 4-hour commitment! 

In the sign-up, I’ve got these two activities split up since they will each need a leader.

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Schedule for Each Day

	9:45-10:25	10:25-11:05	11:05-11:45	11:45-12:25	12:25-1:05
Group A	2	4	LUNCH	1	3
Group B	2	1	LUNCH	3	4
Group C	3	2	4	LUNCH	1
Group D	1a, then 1b	2	LUNCH	4	3
Group E (Sept.11th and 15th)	1b, then 1a	3	2	LUNCH	4

Station 5 is lunch in the family garden, and the classroom teachers will take the lead on that. I’m hoping that the Soil and Water Conservation district will be willing and able to handle station 2 since those are sort of their natural programs. Ali Sloop from JMU stormwater compliance is prepared to do most of the scavenger hunt/walk through the arboretum (station 3), though she needs coverage on the 18th and I’m sure wouldn’t mind having someone to swap out with the other days. Station 4 is the STEM design challenge that has to be completed after students have at least seen the erosion box/rain barrel demonstration, but the school staff is handling the leading of that one.

I really appreciate your participation in this program! I’m sure there will be questions; please let me know what they are.

Sincerely,

Katie

Katie Rankin
Education Coordinator
Edith J. Carrier Arboretum
540.568.3194, rankinkt [at] jmu.edu