Joe Panci, July 23, 2002

Activities to fulfill WI DPI's State EE Standards  (  schoolforest.com  )

Do you have a school forest or nature area that you would love to use in your classroom?  Joe Panci, Assistant Director of Education at Trees for Tomorrow, can help you.  As part of the requirements for the Master of Science in Natural Resources Program for Teachers at the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point (Joe graduated in 2002), Joe created a website for educators to do just that.  At www.schoolforest.com, educators can find activities which fulfill the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s Environmental Education Standards, links to forestry information and materials, and a picture gallery of successes.

Panci’s main goal when creating this website was to create a site that would “help educators turn their kids on to the outdoors by providing stimulating, hands-on, outdoor forest-related activities and to link these activities to Wisconsin’s Environmental Education Standards.”  According to a survey he conducted, he did just that.   80% of the teachers who took the survey after visiting the website said they have or will be using activities from the site in their nature areas or school forests.  The two main reasons teachers give for not using outdoor sites are that they aren’t comfortable with using the outdoors and they don’t have time to develop activities.  Joe’s website takes care of this for them.  The website is easy to use, looks appealing and has a plethora of activities for all grade levels and all disciplines. 

“Environmental Education is our investment in the future,” Panci states, “We are losing touch with the land that nurtures and sustains all life on this planet.  If we are to be good stewards of this resource we must value and treasure it.”  Joe believes, “any time you can get children outside doing hands-on activities, you turn them on to the outdoors, allowing them to see connections and relationships to the land.”  When asked if only teachers could use this website Panci exclaimed, “Absolutely not, parents, scout leaders, camp counselors, anybody who works with our youth would benefit from using this website.  In fact there are even activities for students to do right there on the website.”  The two most popular activities seem to be “Tree Identification”, complete with a tree guide, and “Forest Measurements”.  Panci plans to maintain the website and, as word gets out about the website, he hopes educators will submit more activities to share with others.

To find activities to use with your children or to submit activities and/or pictures go to www.schoolforest.com.  Persons with questions can email Joe Panci through the website or call him at Trees for Tomorrow (715) 479-6456.

For information on UW Stevens Point’s Master’s degree program in Environmental Education for Teachers contact Tim Byers at (715) 346-4176.

Back to Stories and Testimonials