Wildlife Class Ideas

Hey guys,

I’m teaching a wildlife and fisheries class as an elective in my school. I have been given the latitude to get the students interested in the outdoors more so than the science aspects(it’s an elective). Currently I am planning on going fishing for an activity and talking about all different types of hunting and fishing. I’ll have our CO, and wildlife biologist come in as well and talk about rules and regs and where they come from. I was surprised how many were interested in learning about trapping as well. I hope to take them on a trapline at some point but that is yet to be determined. So my question to you guys is what are some things we can do that 15-18 year old kids might find interesting about the outdoors? They want to go hunting but I’m not going to risk the liability of them with guns. I’m open to any and all ideas! Thank you!

Great idea! I am surprised at the interest in trapping, I just started trapping and love it. I would look into foraging as well, this activity seems to be growing in popularity with the local food and field to table movement that is going on. Maybe plant identification, not so much of all plants but more so ones that may matter more to those participating in outdoor activities. Eddible berries, oaks, maples, poison ivy, poison oak and poison sumac, edible mushrooms (discretion advised on this one), and why certain plants paly a role in your outdoor activities. I also have been doing maple syrup the past few years and may be a cool activity too. Wild rice harvesting, ramps ect. Habitat management and habitat stewardship would be some big items I would also look into teaching also.

My suggestion is to back up from the “harvest” portion of each activity and spend discuss the habitat that makes a given recreational activity possible.

Habitat is the driver of all wildlife and fishing recreational activities. Without the habitat, we’ve got nothing to hunt/fish/trap/harvest and nowhere to do it anyway.

There are terrific opportunities available for kids to learn botany, biology, ecology, chemistry and other sciences by studying what makes up the habitat that allows species to survive and thrive.

It’s easy to find good examples like the work Trout Unlimited, Ducks Unlimited, and Pheasants Forever have done to preserve and rehabilitate habitat.

It’s also not hard to find excellent examples of what happens when habitat is destroyed or altered. For example, the reason pheasant numbers in MN are at their lowest point in decades is directly linked to the decline in their available habitat.

Grouse

If you need classroom work, it’d be interesting to go through the Minnesota seasonal harvest opportunities (ie Winter: ice fishing, small game hunting and winter trapping, Spring: turkeys and shed/morel hunting, Summer: fishing to early goose, Fall: all the different hunting, trapping and fishing opportunities) and then have each student pick a different state and give a similar report based off that states seasons.

I would say that this would be spot on. Another thing on the fisheries, contact your local DNR, see if you can get some native weeds, or weeds in general. Put them in a tank, and then add some zeebs to it.

Or from the Delta Waterfowl side, I know one of their guys does a bunch of nesting structures for mallards and did a study on the success rate.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

My suggestion is to back up from the “harvest” portion of each activity and spend discuss the habitat that makes a given recreational activity possible.

Habitat is the driver of all wildlife and fishing recreational activities. Without the habitat, we’ve got nothing to hunt/fish/trap/harvest and nowhere to do it anyway.

There are terrific opportunities available for kids to learn botany, biology, ecology, chemistry and other sciences by studying what makes up the habitat that allows species to survive and thrive.

It’s easy to find good examples like the work Trout Unlimited, Ducks Unlimited, and Pheasants Forever have done to preserve and rehabilitate habitat.

It’s also not hard to find excellent examples of what happens when habitat is destroyed or altered. For example, the reason pheasant numbers in MN are at their lowest point in decades is directly linked to the decline in their available habitat.

Grouse

Thanks guys!

Class trip to a prairie dog town

Our outdoor biology classes here in town have kids building their own rods, making their own flies and jigs and then put what they’ve made to use during fishing trips. The load and shoot trap shells. Of course they learn about the habitats that hold the animals and fish of our area too. Pretty interesting stuff for them. I’ve spent time in the classrooms with some of these kids teaching the art of tying jigs, then in the field fishing with them.

Congrats on taking this challenge on!

This to me sounds like a perfect opportunity to watch an IDO Episodes at school… Each time it gets to a commercial break pause and take a few minutes to discuss what they they had just watched in that segment

Will

Fish Blood that would be awesome but I’m not about to be around some of them with a gun….haha

Tom I plan on showing them how to tie their own spinners rigs. As I learn to do more I’ll introduce it. Are there any online references you’d recommend for tying jigs?

Will I hate to say it but that hadn’t crossed my mind yet. I was planning on some videos but the IDO ones are perfect! We are currently talking about goose hunting the videos do a way better job showing the information than I can just standing in front of them talking.

Thanks guys!

I’m pretty much out of that picture anymore Jeffery, but contact Trumar here on IDO and ask if he has any thoughts on this. He’s a top notch jig tyer. I’m certain that YouTube has a mess of good videos regarding jig tying too.

Every boy that age loves competition. Similar to your spinner tying idea, it would be fun to give them the option of creating their own lure- jig making, plastic making, coloring crankbaits/in-line spinners and then take them to a local lake and have a shore fishing competition. Or give them the weekend to go out on their own. May be a bit of an investment, but a good way to waste a few days of class. Would have killed to having something like this in school. Hell, I’m 24 now and would still kill to do something like that.

My nephew went to Champlin HS a few years ago and had a similar class. From what I remember he went fishing, learned how to do the basic outdoors stuff like light fires, tie knots, setup camp, etc. went hiking, I’m sure they also had a bunch of classroom work. But the biggest thing that sticks out in my mind they all went trap shooting. May be able to call the school and learn about what and how they do it.

Get some fish and have the class dissect them. Learn what each organ is and its function. Also learn about the external anatomy, the function of the paired fins, different types of fish scales, etc.

Buffalo Fishhead

If available in the school, another fun thing to try is practicing one of the best parts of going out in the wildlife, cooking what you kill! If they’re avid outdoorsman teaching the class a sausage/jerky making lesson would be cool. Otherwise something as simple as making a shorelunch!

I’ve heard other schools do basic survival skills like building shelters and a fire or something similar.

I think im more excited for this class than the kids are!

Its probably too late to coordinate the harvest aspect, but you should be able to acquire some raw wild rice from a processor and teach the parching method?

Ricing is is very popular, sustainable, produces a healthy and tasty product, not to mention being a huge industry in our state. It could be a great learning experience that illustrates where some food comes from(and it aint from a store)!

How about building Wood Duck houses or duck nesting structures and then going out and putting them up in the spring? You could get a hold of your local Delta Waterfowl or Ducks Unlimited Chapter for ideas or help. Building snow shoes? There’s a place http://snowshoe.com/ that you can order kits from.

Fishing, cleaning & preparing a fish dinner. FISH FRY !

Educational, competitive, hands on & delicious!

Bonus points for homemade tartar sauce.

I would ace that class!

The snowshoes and wood duck houses are great ideas.

Something to consider here is that most schools will not allow melting lead to make jigs or sinkers anymore given the bad rap lead has gotten in recent years. I did contract work with the school system to make the lead head jigs the classes used to teach tying techniques. Injecting plastic creates some odor and can create fumes that would likely get the process nixed as well, let alone the 350 degree plastic has its own hazards.

Something I found in working with kids in these classes was that there were as many girls in these classes as guys and that they were generally more attentive. Also, many of the classes’ make-up were kids from single-parent homes that had ZERO exposure to fishing or camping or shooting sports or even the out-of-doors in general and the way these kids sucked up information was just amazing.

The class instructor I worked with here in Rochester when I did this was a friend from when we were younger and he grew up trapping and hunting and fishing….an excellent person to spearhead the school system’s classes of this sort. You’ll love teaching this class Jeffrey.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

My suggestion is to back up from the “harvest” portion of each activity and spend discuss the habitat that makes a given recreational activity possible.

Habitat is the driver of all wildlife and fishing recreational activities. Without the habitat, we’ve got nothing to hunt/fish/trap/harvest and nowhere to do it anyway.

There are terrific opportunities available for kids to learn botany, biology, ecology, chemistry and other sciences by studying what makes up the habitat that allows species to survive and thrive.

It’s easy to find good examples like the work Trout Unlimited, Ducks Unlimited, and Pheasants Forever have done to preserve and rehabilitate habitat.

It’s also not hard to find excellent examples of what happens when habitat is destroyed or altered. For example, the reason pheasant numbers in MN are at their lowest point in decades is directly linked to the decline in their available habitat.

Grouse

x3
Outdoor skills are great but this is a very important part, and other science aspects, especially if its a field they want to pursue down the road. Bring some guest speakers in and or a field trip to near by habitat or restoration sites etc. Talk about how to fish but then relate it to different lake types, thermocline, bottom composition, how water quality plays a factor for certain species, and other general lake ecosystem topics. Lot of options for different topics: Wildlife population management, identification of ducks, trees, plants etc, list could go on.