Pretty cool opportunity to mix fly tying with education

[mike_richardson]

I had a turkey call making buddy of mine from Indiana named Steve Finney shoot me a mesage and told me he was doing a reading lesson with his 4th grade students that involved a little girl fly fishing with her grandfather. He told me he was going to show the kids some of my fly pictures.

I was honored by that, but I told Steve I wanted to send each kid a fly so they would really get to see what they look like. If I can, I'm going to make a couple 1 page print outs showing the fly and the bug they represent for him as well.

Steve also told me that as an enrichment activity he had the kids draw up their own fly. I'm going to check some if these drawings out and see if I can make a couple into real flies for the kids. If this is a yearly lesson I really look forward to doing this every year.

I think it's awesome to mix a little outdoor stuff in with a lesson, and as always anything for kids. I imagine there are kids out there that don't have a clue about nature and stuff, and anymore with standardized testing, it seems a teachers hands are often tied on how much science and nature stuff they can teach.

I know where Steve lives there isn't a lot of trout fishing, but if 1 kid shows interest in learning more about fly fishing, flies, trout, or bugs then it was worth it.

 

[mike_richardson]

Thinking I had better clip the barb or have steved cut the hook off. But that is on his end. LOL

 

[kobalt335]

I did an internship where I was able to teach kids in the woods and streams everyday. It was a great experience and they all seemed to enjoy the lessons. The lessons were basic things they learned in school, but to be able to be outside and being hands on makes a huge difference. I really like this because I am really for bring the outdoors into the classroom, or better yet taking the classroom outside.

 

[zenherper]

Awesome post, Mike.

 

[nomad_archer]

Awesome stuff. Anything we can do to educate kids and grow the sport.

 

[duckfoot]

mike_richardson wrote:
I imagine there are kids out there that don't have a clue about nature and stuff, and anymore with standardized testing, it seems a teachers hands are often tied on how much science and nature stuff they can teach.

I'm a science teacher. You have no idea how true your sentence actually is.

Cram as much of this stuff into school as much as you can, because it's slowly getting eroded out of the classroom.

 

[dc410]

duckfoot wrote:


Cram as much of this stuff into school as much as you can, because it's slowly getting eroded out of the classroom.

It's sad to hear about this trend, especially coming from a science teacher.

 

[CaptainHook]

I echo dc410's concern. Science is what kept me half-interested in school. That and writing. Is it up to parents to try and stop that trend?

 

[Dave_W]

I think for the elementary school age kids, it's termed, "nature deficit disorder." (the lack of opportunity for kids to experience the outdoors for whatever reason....too much technology and video games, phone distraction, and yes, testing based school curriculums that crowd out a teacher's ability to introduce kids to nature)

Anyway, take some kids out some day to a stream with a long handled net or kick seine and they'll have a blast looking at macros and all the little critters that turn up and fly tying can really connect them to those critters and stream ecology in a fun and creative way.

 

[duckfoot]

Is it up to parents to try and stop that trend?

Parents are the number one factor in a future adult's education. We as teachers may only see your kid for fifty minutes a day, you have them (hopefully) for much more than that.

 

[mike_richardson]

I got some pictrues sent to me from my buddy of the flies the kids designed and named. Im going to try and make some of them into real flies and send them back out. What a cool opportunity.