DATE:     12/6/99
CONTACT:  Heather Smith, (803) 478-2236
WRITER:   Tom Lollis, (803) 2843343

KATE Has Taught 35,000 Kids About the Environment

     SUMMERTON -- "This is pretty cool!" said Jordan Cook.
     The 10-year-old from Williams Memorial Elementary School 
in St. George has just spent three days with Mother Nature in 
Clemson Extension's Teaching Kids About the Environment program
at R.M. Cooper 4-H Leadership Center.
     "This is my third year," he said. "I'll come back next year
if I can."
     Jordan's enthusiasm for Teaching KATE is music to the ears 
of Heather Smith, program coordinator at Cooper.
     "I like to hear kids say things like  I don't want to go
home,' or  That's the best field trip I've ever had,'" she said.
     Smith describes KATE as a program that uses the out-of-
doors as a hands-on living laboratory for learning about
forestry, soils, water and wildlife and how the four disciplines
relate to each other and to humans. It's geared to grades 5-8.
     "The kids get a chance to see it, feel it and smell it," she
said. 
     Jordan is one of about two dozen students in a GLOBE class
taught by Gale Weathers. GLOBE stands for Global Learning and
Observations to Benefit the Environment.
     "We collect data daily on things like weather, soils and 
cloud cover and send it to NASA. They send us satellite images
and we document what it represents - plant cover, open areas or
wetlands," Weathers said.
     She loves the KATE program because of the scientific 
procedures it teaches. It's good training for her GLOBE students.
     Weathers said too many of today's youngsters have lost 
touch with their environment.
     "Even in a small town like St. George, kids don't play
outside like they used to. They watch TV too much and play
computer games. They can't learn everything they need from TV or
textbooks," she said. KATE gets kids into the fresh air, offering
many of them their first camp experience.
     "We want to teach kids an appreciation for the environment, 
spark an interest in learning and let them learn a little about
themselves," Smith said.
     KATE students go through a teams course, where they learn to
help each other through seemingly impossible activities.
     "One is what we call the broken bridge," Smith said. It 
consists of three separate platforms. Students are given a 2 x 4
board with which to get their entire group across the open
spaces.
     In another exercise, students have to figure out how to fit 
a large group onto a very small platform.
     "They have to hold onto each other and support each other," 
Smith said. "They learn teamwork, leadership and cooperation."
     A real confidence builder for the youngsters can be a night
walk in the woods, according to Wyndell Dodgins, music teacher
and bus driver for the St. George school.
     "Kids have the option to walk a portion of forest path all 
alone when it's pitch black," he said. It's his favorite part of
KATE.
     Dodgins said his group was excited on their second day to
find a squirrel in a live trap and, later, a snakeskin. During
their final morning they divided into two groups. One learned
about soils from instructor Richard Leasure and the other took a 
walk in the woods with instructor Regina DiMayo, who pointed 
out things like a tree uprooted by Hurricane Hugo, cypress trees
growing in the shallow waters of Lake Marion and big yellow and
black spiders sitting in webs along the trail.
     KATE was created by the South Carolina Coalition for Natural
Resource Education, which is made up of state agencies and
private entities that are concerned with natural resources
education, conservation and stewardship. It includes governmental 
agencies such as the S.C. Department of Education, the S.C. 
Forestry Commission and the S.C. Department of Natural Resources,
and private groups such as the Garden Clubs of South Carolina.
     "Since the pilot program in 1992 a total of 35,000 people
have gone through KATE -- over 30,000 kids and almost 5,000 
teachers and chaperones," said George Kessler, Clemson Extension
forestry professor and one of the program developers.
     He said KATE programs are also held at W.W. Long 4-H
Leadership Center in Aiken County.
     Smith said KATE has been so successful that a Pre-KATE
version has been developed. The one-day curriculum for grades 3
and 4 kicked off  Nov. 29-Dec. 10 at Clemson University's 
Sandhill Research and Education Center just west of Pontiac and 
Harbison State Forest on Broad River Road near Columbia.
                         END