NUCFAC PLT Greenschools! YLINC Summer 2014 Day 5 - Science!

Dr. Stephen Bullard, the Dean of the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture welcomed the campers back to Stephen F. Austin State University and gave them some advise about attending college and choosing the career of their dreams. They then heard about fire management careers from Paul Tiller, a master's student in Fire Ecology. He talked about what fire management entails, what fire ecologists study, and some of the nuts and bolts of how the fire management world works.

NUCFAC PLT Greenschools! YLINC Summer 2014 Day 4: Stephen F. Austin State University

The Stephen F. Austin Gardens, where our kids talked shop with professors of horticulture. Landscape design, plant breeding and more botanical career oppurtunities are wide open for them!

To unite the campers as one unit, Furr High School teacher David de Hoyos led a team building exercise for the students in the Stephen F. Austin Mast Arboretum. Students wrote their names, their strengths, and their weakness on a small white board, and shared them with someone that they were accustomed to talking to so far during this trip. The exercise worked wonderfully, and soon the pairs of students were taking good care of each other.

NUCFAC PLT Greenschools! YLINC Summer 2014 Day Three: Gardens of Organic Eatin'

The kids at the University at Houston.

Our future conservation leaders saw flocks of birds of all sizes and colors at Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge for their first stop. Canvasback Ducks, Great White Egrets, Wood Storks and Roseated Spoonbills filled the sky with a living confetti as we took the auto tour from the Discovery Center. Long-time volunteer David Brandes and Outdoor Recreation Coordinator Tim Schnider of the USFWS then brought out their fascinating alligator, corn snake, speckled king snake and hog-nosed snake for a touch and feel experiential learning program. Y-LINC kids learned about the important functions and characteristics of snakes.

NUCFAC YLINC Summer 2014 Day Two: Watercolors and Kayaks!

Della Barbato with a puffer fish at the Galveston Island State Park Nature Center

Early in the morning, our campers took a trip to Galveston Bay, to kayak with watercolors and clipboards in hand.

NUCFAC PLT YLINC Summer 2014 Day One - Amazing things to sea!

Peppers from the Stephen F. Austin High School garden. Deliciously organic!

We began at Stephen F. Austin High School, on Houston's East End. For years, Austin High School has been one of the most active members of our unified network of Project Learning Tree Greenschools!, completing several environmental impacting projects, including rainwater catchment systems, a water conservation project, and extensive urban gardens. The Youth Leadership in Nature Challenge students harvest several fresh fruits and vegetables from the Austin gardens before we went south, towards the waters of Galveston.