Scott Stankowski, April 17, 2003

By MARK MASSOGLIA
Tribune Sports Writer

Scott Stankowski is learning and teaching at the same time.

As part of his master's studies, Stankowski, a comprehensive natural science teacher at Lincoln High School, recently completed a teaching manual, "Wild About Turkey: Wisconsin Teacher Supplement."
With test trials completed, the supplement has been recently published by the National Wild Turkey Federation and is currently being used in 50 school districts in Wisconsin. Stankowski's manual will soon be part of the NWTF's Wild About Turkey education box that is distributed to school districts nation wide.

"I wanted to create something that would help teachers incorporate teaching about turkeys in their classrooms throughout the year, not just around Thanksgiving time," Stankowski said. "The idea behind it is for teachers from kindergarten through grade 12 to be able to come up with ways to use turkey education in their curriculum."
To do that Stankowski, 31, called on nine area teachers to design a lesson plan for their respective discipline.

"This was an interesting undertaking to devise a lesson plan for incorporating nature and the outdoors into my classes," said Lincoln technical education teacher Scott Benitz said. "I'm a turkey hunter, so I was glad to help him with this project and it gave me another way to connect with students. You connect with kids in so many different ways at school. With some it's sports and others their cars, and now I have a way to connect in the classroom with students that enjoy the outdoors."
Benitz's plan calls for students to design and construct a mounting board for wild turkey feathers and beards. Other teachers serving on Stankowski's panel included Martha Kronholm, Brian Daliege, Kurt Jensen, Jeffrey Johannes, Joan Johannes, Jim Fisher and John Kleinhans.

"I really can't say enough about the panel," Stankowski said. "They came up with some great lesson plans."
The supplement contains lesson plans for art, math and English classes as well as for grade schools.

The first 11 pages contain background information about the wild turkey population in Wisconsin. It discusses everything from the current population and habits of wild turkey's in Wisconsin and the effects of hunting them.

With the spring turkey season just a day old the timing of the supplement couldn't be better.

"I've been turkey hunting since 1994, that's when the turkey population was starting to really grow in our area," Stankowski said. "Not many people know, but the turkey population was hunted out in Wisconsin and wasn't reintroduced to the state until 1976."  This summer Stankowski will present his project and earn his Master's of Environmental Education.

"It was a lot of work, but I had great support from Rick Wilke, my advisor at UW-Stevens Point and Jordan Tack, a student at Lincoln who helped with the production," Stankowski said.

"The NWTF is hoping to use my model and develop regional supplements that will cater to the turkey habitats in other areas of the country. So far everyone who has seen it has felt it's a good teaching aid. That was my goal for doing this project."

• Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune.  You can reach Mark Massoglia at 422-6736 or mark.massoglia@cwnews.net.

For the full story at the Tribune's site, please go here:    www.wisinfo.com/dailytribune/wrdtsports/277495946682724.shtml

Teachers interested in getting more information about the M.S. Degree Program in Environmental Education for Teachers at UW Stevens Point can contact Tim Byers, Outreach Program Manager, at (715) 346-4176.

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