The CCES 4^th Graders had the opportunity to work with three rangers from the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve on Monday with a project called “Ranger in Danger” to help celebrate National Park Week. Wendy Lauritzen, Heather Brown, and Mary Beth Murowski visited the school and “introduced” the students to an author by the name of Sean Willmore.  Sean was a ranger in Australia before he sold his belongings and decided to travel around the world interviewing different rangers in National Parks.  He has since written six choose-your-own-destination books in which the main characters are based on some of these rangers.  Although the books are fictional, many of the events are based on true happenings.  

One of the rangers, Paresh Porob, is the forest officer at the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary in India.  Even though India is 10.5 hours ahead of our time, we had a chance to chat with him via Facebook.  Paresh shared several stories about animals he had raised since birth, either injured or orphaned.  The students had several questions too… How large is the park? (Over 200,000 acres); Do you have tigers? (1^st one in over 100 years was just photographed); Does the park have elephants? (Yes, for service in moving trees, hauling supplies, etc.)

We plan to continue the project in May by watching “The Thin Green Line”, a video depicting stories of other rangers, and to Skype with Paresh.  If you see a 4^th grader in the next few weeks, stop him/her and ask about the books or conversations.  They would love to share their enthusiasm!

Environmental Science is conducting a survey about the recycling project they have been running.  The number of recycled bottles has been decreasing dramatically.  Please answer these two questions that would help the environmental science class to make their project more successful.

SurveyMonkey Link