deKort talks environment at national teaching forum

By Kelsey Sullivan

As the world’s temperatures increase and carbon dioxide levels grow higher, scientists, researchers and politicians alike gathered in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Feb. 16- 18 to predict the effects of global climate change. A lone high school science teacher — FHS’ own Linda deKort — joined forces with her fellow scientists.

“We were trying to figure out what would be the specific consequences of global climate change in our region,” said deKort.

The goal of the forum did not include trying to “stop” climate change or “debate over whether it is happening or not,” according to deKort. But the forum did address how teachers could help students “understand, plan for and cope with global climate change.”

“I was invited because some of the researchers at Yellow Bay have been involved in global climate change,” said deKort. “They were looking for educators to go.”

As the only high school teacher present, deKort was able to work with many climatologists, professors, ranchers and others involved in climate change matters. Much of this work involved brainstorming on how teachers could help students be successful within different fields of  science.

Understanding the scientific method behind examining global warming would allow students “to understand what the probability of the different scenarios might be,” said deKort. “We also realize that we need more projects, instruction and new forms of assessments.”

deKort incorporates monitoring, another scientific aspect the brainstormers found important   into her classroom. She began water-quality monitoring at Ashley Creek in 1980. This monitoring has been performed by her classes and the club Free Flow, as well as by individual students.

“Mrs. deKort’s support was the only thing that kept me going in my three-quarter-long research project on Ashley Creek,” said senior Kristin Hopkins, the lone senior who researched water quality in deKort’s Advanced Biology class last year. “We felt this was a valid project because our water resources are such a vital part of the community and we wanted to demonstrate that they were threatened in the absence of a filtration system at the Ashley Creek storm drain.”

The forum “reaffirmed some of the issues I feel are important in education,” said deKort. “I think we do need more good science out there — (we need to) figure out how this natural Earth system of ours operates.”

The chance to attend the forum not only allowed deKort to understand the Earth’s system better, but also to discover how important interactive science education is vital.

“The most important thing I got out of (the forum) as a science teacher was realizing we really don’t know a lot of things,” said deKort. “I think (we need) to encourage students to ask good questions and go out and get that information themselves and figure out what that means and continue to interface science with social issues. You can’t get (understanding) out of a multiple choice test.”

 Hopkins, too, discovered how deKort’s search for science solutions fostered growth in her own scientific interests.

“I never knew that I was science-oriented, but the enthusiasm with which we approached this project got me excited about continuing my education,” said Hopkins. “Now, I’m planning on majoring at MSU in a field related to my research project.”

Said deKort:

“You have to have this balance. Look at science as a noun, do it as a verb.”

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