Trees for Tomorrow 7th Grade Trip

Recently, the 7th-grade class had a fantastic opportunity to visit the Trees For Tomorrow Environmental Education Center Trees For Tomorrow Environmental Education Center located just about 4 hours North of Milwaukee in Eagle River, Wisconsin. 

Since 1944, Trees For Tomorrow has been educating students about natural resources, land management, environmental science, and sustainability practices in a fully immersive, interdisciplinary, and inquiry-based learning environment designed to complement their current curriculum here at Tamarack.  Using the Northern Woods and a local river as both their classroom and laboratory, the 7th-grade class was able to gain some hands-on learning experience directly through experimentation, observation, and a whole lot of exploration. 

As part of the middle school curriculum, the general theme for the 7th-grade class was the study of forest systems and the ways in which various changes in the environment impact these systems.  Some of the courses the students were able to participate in included Introduction to Field-Based Science Skills, Survival Skills, Animal Adaptations, Animal Thermal Adaptations, Forest Succession, Deer Impact, Nature’s Design, and Orienteering.  Each of the courses included classroom time as well as hikes around the 40-acre campus and some of the surrounding forests.  Some of the students’ favorite activities included fire building, practicing tree identification on the tree ID course, evaluating animal signs in the woods, learning the different components of a compass, navigating their way through the local orienteering course, playing basketball, and playing games in their dormitory lounges. 

The staff and environmental educators at Trees For Tomorrow were outstanding and incredibly informative, and they created a great learning environment for each of the students.   We had a blast!

Derek Barnet, 7th Grade Homeroom Teacher, and Upper Grades Language Arts Teacher