The Playa Festival at the Ascension Academy in Amarillo, Tx on 09/09/11 was a great success due to the warm administrators and staff who are dedicated to the success of their students, the parents who volunteered their time to come out to photograph activities and promote their school, and lastly the students who were visibily eager to learn and welcomed a challenge.
Students were engaged with nature after an overview of what playas are and how they got here. We took rotating groups out to the playa for hands-on experience with playa plants which the students illustrated in their journals. We also observed the ever-changing landscape where we found cracks as deep as three feet. The other group observed a rainwater harvesting demonstration by Jason and Julie Hodges and were divided into groups to compete against each other for which group could harvest the most water. The afternoon schedule consisted of three rotating groups which participated in Bird Identification, Plant Identification, and I assisted in Soil Identification.
My favorite part of the experience was facilitating the students with Julie's challenge to engage them with nature thru creative writing. The students were engaged with making good observations and illustrations but poem writing proved to be where students wanted to spend more time and thought. These students acquired knowledge and were left to ponder the world around them and how we can best conserve our playas. I was extremely impressed with the positive attitude of the staff and students.
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