A s W i l d l a n d s School nears the halfway point of year three we have seen many changes since that first day of school in 2005. Thinking back to September 2005 we opened our doors with 40 students ready to go, but not really knowing what to expect. The first year was a real trial and error period, with most of the first semester being conducted without many resources, little or no computer technology, but the lack of resources was surely offset by the enthusiasm and energy of the students and staff. Once the state grant funds became available our school began to take shape materially, but the true Wild-lands spirit had already been born, and the funds only al-lowed it to fly a little higher.

It really seems like yesterday when those first students sat here in the Citi-zen Science Center wonder-ing what they had signed up for. Now, two and a half years later, Wildlands has taken many of the steps nec-essary to realizing the vision of becoming “a learning com-munity based in the natural world.” This year’s group of students is experiencing many of the early goals set forth when the school was origi-nally designed. To begin the school year all students, grades 7-12, participated in an intensive 3 week outdoor recreation and physical edu-cation project. After a week of general and technical preparation in canoe safety and navigation, first aid, trip planning, backcountry ethics, backcountry safety, meal planning and cooking, and the operation of equipment needed for “leave no trace” camping the students were ready to go.

And go we did. Three days on the Flambeau River, with backcountry

camping on the shore each night. This trip not only created a climate of learning through experience in the outdoors, it provided a context for all the students and staff to become a real team.

Upon returning to Wildlands, the whole school set out to inventory the forest com-munity at Lowes Creek County Park to help Eau Claire County Planning set new park manage-ment goals. Projects like these have been instrumental in creat-ing a unique teaching and learn-ing environment for our stu-dents.

Along with some of our large group projects and activities many smaller projects have been in the works at the high school level. The multi-year small mammal inventory project is back up and running. This is a cooperative effort be-tween Wildlands students and the Aquatic and Terrestrial Re-source Inventory section of the DNR in Madison. Students are field trapping, sampling, identi-fying and cataloging small mammal species. One facet of the project involves developing a visual (microscopic) identifi-cation key to small mammal hair types. Another phase is delving into the mysteries of the small mammal’s DNA. Students are extracting and analyzing DNA to build a library of genetic differences for identification purposes. Read more about this project in this newsletter issue.

Other students have been working with the Lake Eau Claire Association since early fall to map the depths of Lake Eau Claire. Developing a depth

map (bathymetric map) will aid in solving some of the water quality problems which occur each summer on the lake. Some people might even want a copy to help them find a fish or two. An accurate map required many hours of field work, over 90,000 data points, and many more hours in the lab preparing the data for the map. The students involved have developed great expertise in GPS and Geographic Information Systems for mapping and data analysis. The map will be pub-lished in the spring and available through Wildlands, the DNR, and some commercial outlets.

These two projects ex-emplify the goals of Wildlands to involve students in meaningful community based research pro-jects. Community based projects provide a context for learning not found in any typical classroom.

Stay tuned for more updates as Wildlands continues to grow, develop, and adapt to the needs of our students. If you want to know more about our school feel free to contact us. Email;

wildlands@augusta.k12.wi.us, or call 715-877-2292.

- Paul Tweed

A New Subject 2

Lake Eau Claire 3

Spinning our wheels...Literally! 3

Building a Loft 6

Miss. Augusta 7

Small Mammal Project Update 8

Social Studies 8

Are You a Fun Guy? 2

Learning like a Pro 7

Semi Trucks vs. Trains 4

Adventures on the Flambeau 5

A Word of Gratitude 7

Wedding Shower Bliss 9

Inside this issue:

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Volume 4, Issue 1

December 2007

www.wildlandschool.net

Major Sponsors

School District

Wildlands is a partnership between:

Wildlands: A Project

Open Enrollment:

February 4th—22nd

Applications via:

www.wildlandschool.net

Or Call Wildlands

(715) 877-2292

Highlights: • Map of Lake Eau Claire

nears production

• Wildlands builds garage

• Tales from the Flambeau

• Students help EC County

put them in plastic bags. To get used to our cameras again, we took close up pictures of the fungi. Once we got all of the pictures we needed, we downloaded them onto the Wildlands drive on our network, and identified all the types we found.

Once we had collected all of the data and pictures of the fungi we de-signed a project to display all of the in-formation. Some examples of projects are to make a poster board, or track find-ers of all the identified fungi. We could make a copy of our projects for in the Nature Center for others to use. It will be useful for us too because we don’t have a fungi track finder yet.

Along with taking pictures of the fungi, we took waypoints with our GPSs of where we found the fungi. After my group gets done with finding fungi, we’re going to make a map of all the places we found them. Then we will know if there are places that certain fungi grow, and the most common place to find specific fungi.

- Aaron Forde 9th grade

¿Cómo estás tú? ¡Muy bien! For those who don’t know, that is Spa-nish for: “how are you?” and, “very good!” This year, Mrs. Seubert is tea-ching Spanish to a group of seven stu-dents in the high school. In the class we are learning phrases, concepts and spe-lling skills through worksheets and soft-ware. A few of our worksheets are cross-word puzzles, some are fill in the blanks, while others are little games that impro-ve our learning. We are also learning from software on our computers that matches sound and spelling to pictures. Unfortunately, the program we were going to work with, called Rosetta Sto-ne, has had some technical difficulties (we aren’t able to use it at home), so we have started a new program. This pro-gram is called Talk To Me, and it is dif-ferent from Rosetta Stone in many ways but still easy and fun to use. In this pro-gram we rearrange sentences, match words to pictures, and pick sentences

that fit the conversation. It also says phrases in Spanish to us and has us speak certain words back to make sure we have the right pronunciation. It is a fun and easy way to learn Spanish and I’m glad we have it.

- Sam Larson 9th Grade

Have you ever wondered what kind of fish live in the lakes or rivers near where you live? That’s what Dan Rogers, Jordan Miller, and Nick Perkovich thought, and, for several weeks, have been trying to figure out.

They do this by going to a nearby stream and capturing fish. The fish are caught with minnow traps, broom handled strems (small, handheld nets), and one large seine (a large net carried by two people). They take the seine and walk

how to present their data. If the students wanted to, they could make a virtual map with all of the waypoints so that if they clicked on a particular waypoint a picture of that fungi would pop up with a short description about it. Or they also have the option to start a fungi catalog.

I personally think that after this project students will be able to identify fungi better. They will also have more experience with the different software on their computers.

- Devin Sprinkle 9th grade

Have you ever thought about how many different kinds of fungi there are, or what fungi is used for? Wildlands High School students have been working on a fungi project. The reason that the students started this project was to get experience in the field, and learn to use some of the soft-ware programs on their computers. The students began this project by taking as many pictures of fungi as possible and identifying them. The students identified the fungi by the feel, smell, or by using a fungi identification book. After identifying the species of fungi, students down-loaded all of the pictures onto their computers. They also marked every picture with a GPS waypoint. The GPS tracks are downloaded to the computer

to help with referencing. From there the students design their own project and decide what to do with and

Page 2

Are You a Fun Guy?

A New Subject

through the water for several feet. The net is then placed on dry ground, where any fish are put into a bucket full of wa-ter. This process continues until some-one picks them up.

When they get back to Wild-lands, the fish are put in tanks. Dan puts the fish one by one into a smaller tank, and identifies them. He than writes a summary describing the species, habits, and appearance. This is put on the tank the fish is housed in.

The kinds of fish they have caught are large and small mouth bass, walleye, bluegill, crappie, perch, gold-fish, bullhead, brook silverside, stickle-back, creek chub, lake chub, banded darter, eastern sand darter, black-nosed dace, rainbow darter, pug-nosed min-now, and many other yet to be identified species of minnows. - Max McCormick 9th grade

Something’s Fishy

What is the Fun Guy Project? Well, if you haven’t had to deal with really bad teacher jokes for the last two years, you might not know what it means. “Fun Guy” is a bad word play, also known as a Hadorn joke, that actually refers to fungi. All of the A group, which consists of the freshman and sophomores, went out on the Beaver Creek Reserve property to look for as many different types of fungi as we could find.

So you’re thinking, where did we start, right? We didn’t pick them and

VOLUME 4, I SSUE 1 Page 3

This fall, students Sawyer Stubbe and Cesar Villegas have been leading the Lake Eau Claire Bathymetric Map-ping project with the help of boat driv-ers Herb Comstock, Robin Walsh, Gary Speich, and Ken Frost. As of Novem-ber 30, 2007 they have in excess of 90,096 data points and have mapped 100% of the target zone.

The method of data collection is fairly simple, but very time consuming. Wildlands School has hand held com-puters known as iPAQs with an ArcPad mapping software and a GPS extension. All that is needed is to have the boat operators drive in circles, or to a par-ticular area while the data collectors punch in the data. Every time a data point is created, it is assigned GPS co-ordinates and a depth rounded to the nearest whole foot.

Now that the data collection is complete, a map layout will be created. The layout will consist of an aerial pho-tograph that shows the surrounding area and roads for the cover page, and a de-tailed contour aerial map with statistical analysis and legend for the center spread. A Digital Elevation Model (DEM), which allows the contours of the basin to be seen, will be created for the back cover page. The goal deadline for the final lay-out is December 2007.

- Cesar Villegas 12th grade

Are you a fan of biking? Do you think that it is great for your health? Well, I think that biking is a great sport, and that it is fantastic cardio-vascular exercise.

Wildlands student have had a lot of experience on their bikes this fall, most of the time at Lowes Creek County Park. They use the bikes for getting around, or just getting some exercise.

The mountain bikes are very helpful for some of the projects we have been working on this fall be-cause you get around the area a lot faster. It’s also a lot more enjoyable then walking in my opinion. I’m really glad that Wildlands has bikes that we get to use as part of our physical education program!

- Derrick Lewallen 9th Grade

Do you like mountain biking? Many people do, however, most people wouldn’t think of it as schoolwork would they? Well, Wildlands School considers mountain biking schoolwork. Imagine that! You get to ride around on beautiful and exciting trails and you’re getting credit for it. The trails wind around hairpin turns and drastically change height; it’s hard to imagine until you ride the trails for your-self.

Besides being a ton of fun, it’s also good exercise. Riding bikes is always a great cardiovascular workout. Wildlands school physical education curriculum teaches students about life-long sports, and biking is something just about anyone at any age can enjoy.

Wildlands was doing tree transect work for Eau Claire county. Lowes Creek County Park has 280 acres of land, it is mixed forest with lots of different kinds of trees, and the tree transects were being used to calculate the species diversity of the park. The bikes were used by each group to get to the different tree transects so they could get the data they needed. It made covering the 280 acres a lot easier when you could pedal your way to the next point instead of having to hike.

Don’t you agree that it would be fun to have schooldays like that? Riding bikes as part of your schoolwork. See, schoolwork isn’t that bad!

-Asher Velin 9th grade

Lake Eau Claire An Update...

If you’ve been on Lake Eau Claire this fall, you have probably seen a couple of boats driving around in circles. I would like to thank these seemingly crazy people, for they are not as loopy as they appear. Herb Comstock, Robin Walsh, Gary Speich, and Ken Frost have been helping out Wildlands School and the DNR, remapping the long overdue LEC. So on behalf of these two in-stitutions I would like to thank these fine gentlemen for putting in countless volunteer hours and using their own boats and gas to help us out. With the assistance of these peo-ple we have collected all the necessary data and are much closer to putting the new map into publication.

- Sawyer Stubbe 12th grade

Thank You to our Boat Drivers

Spinning our Wheels … Literally!

90% of Wildlands Students would rather bike for phy ed than take a hike

“Every time a data point is created, it is assigned GPS coordi-nates and a depth…”

An Early Look at Lake Eau Claire

The darker the color, the deeper the water

At Wildlands, we have a very effective cleaning crew. That crew is the students. Our jobs are different every week, which I like very much. Examples of jobs are cleaning the kitchen after lunch, vac-uuming, sweeping, and a lot more. The jobs are done during the last ten minutes of the day. These jobs help a lot with responsibility and daily val-ues, and it keeps Wildlands looking great.

- Joey Konzen 7th grade

At the beginning of the year, the teachers decided to start with a Tree ID Project. As a class, we practiced using reference material and tree books to help us identify trees. We took regu-lar hikes out in the woods and learned how to identify different types of trees and how to tell them apart. We put our new experiences to use by going out to Lowe’s Creek County Park, identifying trees, and calculating biodiversity. Be-fore doing any tests, Mr. Hadorn took us all out on our bikes to Lowe’s Creek, so that we could get used to the area. While we biked, the High School students did their tree tests. The follow-ing day, we switched off with them, we tested, and they went biking for the day. The method we used for testing was as follows: First we split up into groups of about 5, then chose an area to walk through. We then walked in a straight line for 50 meters with our arms stretched out, and if we hit a tree totally within our arms length, we would record its circumference, iden-tify it, and record it in our notebook. We used this information to calculate the Lowes Creek tree biodiversity for the DNR. (Department of Natural Re-sources) So we were testing for the DNR, but we also got a grade!

- Gracia Larson 8th grade

Helping Hands

May I see your ID?

Wow, that was the 100th semi I’ve counted today! Have you ever tried to count how many semis you see on the road? More and more are there every year. My opinion is that we should start using more trains to ship cargo. This is why: semis are bad for the environment, unsafe, and damage roads much faster than cars. Trains can reduce the prices of fossil fuels and products that consumers buy, and reduce the amount of air pollution.

Most of you have heard that the Minneapolis Bridge collapsed in August of this year. Semis could have contributed to this because of their weight. The weight limit for most freeways is 40 tons. According to re-cent studies one 40 ton semi is equal to the average weight of 40 cars. Isn’t that a lot? Because of this bridge col-lapsing many people were hurt. Truck accident rates are four times higher than trains. Semis cause many acci-dents due to their weight, tight turns, and the truckers driving without enough sleep. An example of a large accident that many people can relate to is the Chi-Hi bus crash. Using trains instead of semis will reduce conges-tion and accidents on highways. Trains are safer because they are not driving on the same road/rail as other cars/trains. So there is not as much congestion. 1 train can take 128 or semis off the roads. In 2006 trains took 12 million semis off the roads, which sounds like a lot, but is not enough.

Semis are also hurting the environment. One semi produces three times the amount of emissions as a train per 1 ton/mile of cargo. Emis-sions are usually from internal com-bustion engines that release substances to the air around us. There are actually some hybrid trains being made. Ac-cording to Union Pacific, hybrid trains are expected to reduce emissions by 80% and fuel consumption by 50%. That would significantly reduce air pollution. Putting 10 percent of trucks long haul loads on to trains can reduce fuel consumption by 1 billion gallons per year. Trains can pull one ton on an average of 423 miles per gallon of

diesel. These green trains were designed by the California Air Resources Board; the hy-brids use diesel and electricity. Because semis do a lot more damage to roads we have to use more resources that may or may not be renew-able, to rebuild them. If we start using trains instead of semis it will reduce the price of fossil fuels and consumer products. Trains can carry more at once which means they won’t have to waste fuel on more trips.

Semi use results in more road con-struction that we pay for with taxes. It costs 1-3 million dollars to add capacity to a rail road instead of 10 million to add a lane to high-ways. Train engines also can last 20-30 years so it cost less money to make more. People may think trains won’t provide enough jobs but, the railroad industry was a large employer before we had semis. The list of possible jobs include: mechanic, conductor, engineer, and traffic control. Millions of jobs including auto, steel, construction and agricultural depend on railways to ship their products and materials. Semis may be more convenient but, you have to think about the long term affect of conven-ience vs. clean or economical. What about waiting for those trains to finish going across the road, well, isn’t that better than getting in a crash on the highway. It also gives you a chance to work on your counting skills.

Just imagine less and less semis on the road every year. There can be cleaner air, safer driving and less road construction. In-stead of counting semis you could count cars, train cars. If you would like to learn more a b o u t t h i s t o p i c g o t o www.freightrailworks.com. This is where I found a lot good information for my report.

This year I was going to enter the conservation speech contest. It ended up being canceled due to lack of entries. This is the persuasive paper I wrote.

- Erin Arneson 8th grade

Semi Trucks vs. Trains

“...hybrid trains are ex-pected to reduce emis-sions by 80% and fuel consumption by 50%.”

Page 4

To start the year out we went on a two night, three day canoe trip down the Flambeau River. This was part of our out-door education curriculum.

In addition to camping and canoeing we also got to know our classmates and make friends.

Before we left on the trip, we prepared for several days. We learned to properly set up tents, how to use a water pump, and the correct way to put the canoes on the racks. Another important thing we learned is what to do if we flipped the canoe and how to get it back over. Then we planned our menu of meals. We also learned how to pack the water tight bags with sleeping bags, clothes, mats,

and food.

When we got to the Flambeau River we packed our boats and put them in the water. Then we had a little meeting and we headed out. We had been floating down the water for about four hours when we got to our camp-site. We set up camp and started a campfire. The cooks of each group started making supper, and we ate around the campfire.

We got up in the morning, ate breakfast, and got on the water. We were cruising down the water snack-ing on sunflower seeds and PowerAde.

We hit a few rapids but most of the water was calm. We were going down the river when it started to rain so we stopped at a campsite and

w a i t e d there for t w o hours for the storm to pass. We de-cided to cut our time on the river short because of the rain. We went to a camp site to spend the night, fish, and hang out. We had a great time telling jokes around the campfire that night. Then we got back to the school and unpacked and went home. I felt that the trip was a cool way to get to know all of the kids.

- Isaac Nitz 7th grade and Brandon Mondeau 7th grade

Adventures on the Flambeau

Have you ever been on a three day camping trip with your school? This is one unique feature of Wildlands that the students get to participate in. At the beginning of the school year the teachers decided to take a trip down the Flambeau River, so the students could get to know each other a little better. It was three days of canoeing, and two nights camping on the flambeau shore. All of the students were di-vided into groups of four. One group consisted of Erika, Sawyer, Travis, and Klarissa. Each group had to plan their own supplies for the trip before they left.

Erika, Travis, and Klarissa made a list of food that they would need on the trip. Sawyer decided that he was going to do things on his own instead of with the group. The three tried to pick things that would

be easy to cook and clean up. After the cooking list was planned, they gathered the other supplies needed, like cooking gear, sleeping gear, food, and water-proof bags. There were many things that had to be packed into the Canoe. Erika and Klarissa had all of their gear packed in to one large water bag, and personal stuff packed into two smaller water bags.

During the entire trip they spent most of the time on the in the canoes on the water except at night. When the group would arrive at camp the students would setup their tents. After the tents were ready for the night they would start supper. After supper, all the groups would make sure that all the smelly things (like food) were put into a dry bag, then they tipped over the canoes with the dry bags underneath. The reason for that was so no unwanted animals, like bears, would come into the camp site. When everything was put away the groups would all gather around the fire for group discussions and activities. Around ten p.m. or so everyone would go to bed. Around 7:30 a.m. or so the groups would start waking up and gathering their food to start breakfast. After breakfast every-one would pack up and hit the water again for the remainder of the day.

The trip was hard on some of the students near the end because so many days in a canoe with the same person can get a little irritating when they are both tired. Even though it took a lot of team work everyone really en-joyed themselves and had a lot of fun. Erika and Klarissa had some disagree-ments about who was going to be in the front and back of the canoe but in the end worked through them and after the trip they became closer friends.

On the last day everyone helped load the bus and pack up their canoes. When they arrived back at the school everyone was assigned a job to do for clean up before they could go home. While working the students talked about how people got stuck on rocks and how crazy some of the rapids were. By the time e ve r yth in g was cleaned up and packed away for next year, the students couldn’t wait to take shower!

- Klarissa Roloson 12th grade

VOLUME 4, I SSUE 1 Page 5

Page 6

Adventures from the Flambeau Continued...

Page 7 VOLUME 4, I SSUE 1

Lowes Creek County Park

When the weather is this

nice, who wants to be

stuck behind a desk?

Page 8

Finding Fish

Any student will tell you Wild-lands has a lot of “stuff.” It’s important stuff, stuff we use daily, stuff we use once in a while, stuff we might need some day, stuff we used to use; it’s just a lot of stuff. And we were running out of places to put all of our stuff. So this summer a 24 foot by 24 foot steel pole garage was built to help with the storage problem of all of our stuff. We had this large empty building, with lots of stuff to put in it, but how do you even begin to organize it all? That was our task.

Mr. Tweed asked us to design an organizational plan for the garage. We started the drawings for the garage plans awhile back, but these past few weeks Nick Perkovich, Dan Rogers, and I have been putting together what I first drew out for our “loft” project. The objective was to make storage space in

the garage without taking up any floor space, a loft made perfect sense. Our first piece to the puzzle was to set the post and post anchor for our main support. After that we attached the 2x8 stringers on the front, back, and side walls. Once the main structure of the loft was built we could visualize exactly what needed to be done next.

You can’t have a loft without a floor, and you can’t have a floor without joist hangers, so that was the next thing on the agenda. Nick and I had a little trouble in the beginning trying to figure out some measure-ments, but eventually we got it. It took us most of one day to get the joist hangers up. The next day the 2x6’s started going up. I started to get excited once the loft actually started to look like a loft.

Our ¾ in. plywood for the floor was not the easiest thing to get up on the 2x6’s but we did it. This job took all three of us to get the plywood up. It wasn’t the weight that made it difficult, but more the size. The last 4x8 sheet had five different cuts that needed to be made in order for it to fit just right. I was in charge of that since Dan and Nick had to take the bus back at 2:00 p.m. It took me a while to figure out all the different angles that were involved. Finally, I got it to fit and decided to leave the rest of the excitement for

everyone until the next day.

Our goal on that Friday was to fin-ish the loft, the things that needed to be done were smaller more strenuous things like con-necting supports to the outsides of the floor, knocking out the old 2x4 supports, and cleaning up the area in-side the ga-rage. After these things were done we could finally stand back and admire our work. I was proud to have built something like that with other students and very little input from any adults. It gives me a higher level of confidence knowing I am able to do something like this someday for myself with no trouble. The project turned out to be a success and we all worked very well together putting each of our skills to the test according to the circum-stances. I had a lot of fun working with Nick and Dan, and the organizational process has just begun!

- Jordan Miller 11th grade

During this school year Jordan Miller, Nick Perkovich, and Dan Rogers have caught some interesting little fish in the Eau Claire River. The project began with Dan going fishing at a couple differ-ent lakes and ponds in Fairchild and Os-seo. He brought the fish he caught back to school and put them in the schools’ aquari-ums. Within days, there were plenty of hungry fish in the aquariums. The students decided instead of buying food, they would go out and net some live minnows to feed to their big game fish.

So far the species the students have caught are bluegill, large mouth bass, small mouth bass, crappie, walleye, perch and an ugly bullhead. While the three class mates were out in the river with chest wad-ers on and a seine net, they found a couple of weird looking minnows. The common minnows they fed to the game fish and the unknown minnows were kept to be studied and identified. They were going to study if they are native, their habitat, and food sources. They found a lot of great facts

about the minnows and they post the facts for other students to learn from.

Currently research is being conducted on a small pond where exotic goldfish have been found. The goldfish are not native and can be considered an invasive species. The research is focusing on the goldfish population numbers, age structure of the population, and reproduc-tive potential. Since the goldfish are already in this small pond ecosystem another goal is to work to insure they don’t spread to the nearby river.

This is a very exciting project for these guys. They are learning a lot about fish and minnows, and are very interested in the results they will find with the goldfish research. Dan is a big fisherman so this project isn’t hard for him to be motivated to do.

-Dan Rogers 12th grade

Building a Loft

Picture This…

High School students learn the proper way to perform a tree transect study, and how to identify the trees at Beaver Creek Reserve at Lowes Creek County Park

Wildlands Newsletter Student Editors:

Josiah Wahl, Erika Brown, Max McCormick

Advisors:

Liz Seubert, Paul Tweed

VOLUME 4, I SSUE 1

On the second day of school we got herded onto the bus. We did not know were we were going, but when we got there, we knew it was Borders. We got to pick a book for the school library. We spent about an hour there, and everyone got to choose a book. There were scary books, science fiction books, and action books. These books will be kept in the school library for students to enjoy for years!

- Esau Casetta 7th grade

Page 9

Miss. Augusta The second thing I had to pre-sent a talent of my interest. I choose to talk about hunter safety. I pick this topic because it is a subject that I feel is not addressed as much as it should be and safety out in the woods is very im-portant to me. The best part of my tal-ent was when I demonstrated how to properly shoot a deer. I took a decoy deer and with my gun I pretended to shoot the deer by yelling bang, the deer fell over and the whole crowd laughed so hard I couldn’t continue until they stopped.

Third we had to be inter-viewed by the judge’s one at a time. This part was what I was most worried about because there was no way you could prepare for it. When it came to my turn to go in and talk with them I was so nervous but after it was all done I felt good about the answers I had given them.

This summer I had a parade almost every weekend. Being up there on the float with all the other girls in our matching dresses was the greatest experience. I met so many new friends and have become much closer friend with the girls who made the Miss. Au-gusta court. I can’t wait until summer comes again with all the parades and

This summer I competed for the crown in the Miss. Augusta pag-

eant. I was se-lected 2nd atten-dant. It was a great learning experi-ence, and I made a lot of new friends from all around the area. It took many hours of preparation before

I was ready to compete in the pageant.

The first thing I had to do was write a four minute speech on any sub-ject I would like to talk about. My speech was on Chron’s Disease. Crohn’s disease is an inflammatory bowel disease the causes chronic in-flammation of the intestinal track. I chose to talk about this subject because my younger sister was just recently diagnosed with mild Chron’s disease. She is now on medication and a strict diet to keep it under control.

At the beginning of the year our middle-school class was assigned Current Events. Each student has an assigned day of the week for current events that we report on to the class, than discuss. Current events are news articles that we write about so that we are kept informed about things happening in the community, state, nation, or world. We get the current events from T.V., newspapers, Internet, radio, and anywhere else.

Current events are graded on a scale of 1-10. Grades depend on neatness and how much information it has. The key thing for getting a good grade is to remember who, what, when, where, and why.

We also have to write why the story that we wrote was important to us, and why we chose to report on it. We must include the source, author, and title of the story. I think that current events are a great start for each day.

- Brett Lewallen 8th grade and Joe Konzen 7th grade

Wildlands Invades

Important from WI DPI: For students outside of the Augusta School District or

not currently enrolled at Wildlands

Dates for Open Enrollment:

February 4th—22nd Parents must apply to the nonresi-

dent district (Augusta). Late applica-tions cannot be accepted for any rea-

son. Check our website for more information.

A Word of Gratitude Wildlands School would like to ex-tend a big thank you to a number of people that helped with the construction of our new storage garage. With all of the equipment we have ac-quired in the past couple of years, we were run-ning out of space to store it all in; the 24’ x 24’ steel pole shed was the best solution to our problem.

Last spring Wildlands received a grant from EdVisions which we were able to use to cover the cost of most of the materials and con-tractors. However, this garage would not have been possible to complete without the help of the people who donated their time, talents, and sense of humor. Special thanks to John Kelly, Tom Crowe, Chuck Forseth, and Rick Koziel for being part of our construction crew. And thanks to Walter’s Buildings for donating some of the materials. Come check it out, it looks great! Thank you! Wildlands Staff

For the last couple of weeks I have broad-ened my understanding of Final Cut Stu-dio, the video editing software. Wildlands purchased a tutorial DVD set which in-cludes Final Cut Pro, Motion, Soundtrack Pro, and DVD Studio Pro. The tutorials purchased have developed my understand-ing of Final Cut Studio4 to a level I never though imaginable. I have expanded my knowledge of the program to college level, and I hope that as I utilize those skills I will continue to grow. Until I came to Wildlands I never knew what it was that I wanted to do for a living. However, I told Mr. Tweed that I enjoyed making videos and the rest is, as they say, history. I have enjoyed all of the opportunities that Wild-lands has offered over the last year, and I plan to use them to my advantage for the future.

- Jordan Marg 12th grade

Learning like a Pro

News About the News

than handing down our crowns for the next year’s group of girls.

- Erika Brown 12th grade

Page

For the past two years a some of Wildlands’ students have been hard at work on something called the “Small Mammal Project”. However, a lot of people have been asking what the end product of this project will be, and I am more than happy to answer that question.

To put it as simply as possi-ble the point of the Small Mammal Project is to create a more cost effec-tive method of monitoring small mam-mal species locations. For years moni-toring small mammals has been a nec-essary part of monitoring the ecosys-tem. There is however one problem with that process, and that is cost.

The current method of DNR surveys consists of having to pay someone to go into the area and set up at least one hundred Sherman live traps. They would then have to check each trap about three times a day, for at least the next three weeks. After every animal they catch, they would need to identify and record the spe-cies, and possibly record the size of the animal as well, depending on the type of study. After this they would report back to the office.

There are some obvious flaws with this process. The cost of course is

the most obvious, the amount of money it costs to pay someone to survey an area ensures that only a few of these surveys can take place at a time. The second big problem is the chance of human error. With just one or two peo-

ple looking over the small mammal it is possible for them to mistake one species with another, this is especially true for the Deer Mouse and White Footed Mouse as well as the Wood-land Jumping mouse and Meadow Jumping Mouse since each pair is al-most identical in outward appearance.

With the “Hair Identification Method” that the students at Wild-lands are working on the cost should be much lower and the accuracy would be higher. The process devel-oped so far is, the DNR would send out a single person or team to survey an area. They would go to the loca-tion, set out one hundred or more hair traps, then they can return to the of-fice. Someone is sent out to retrieve the collected hairs and rebate the traps once a week for three or more weeks. After the hair samples are brought in the DNR would use a method of hair examination based on many different

Small Mammal Project Update

parts of the hair, this includes the root, color, and any strictures, or bends, in the hair. Since the closer a species is together the more similar their hair will be, the DNR would move on to DNA analysis. By taking the DNA from the hair root, they could compare it to a small mammal DNA cata-log and identify the species. This process would not only allow the DNR to survey more land at a time, but it would also en-sure that the accuracy of the identification was greatly improved, as there would be more people to overview the operation.

The goal for Wildlands at this moment is to create both the hair sample catalog and DNA catalog. Once this is completed the students plan to begin work on testing the best way to be able survey the land by doing test surveys on the Bea-ver Creek Reserve property. After two years, this project is going well and will hopefully be completed soon.

-Mike Kortness 12th grade

Social Studies

The snow-glazed trees echo the sound of heavy boots breaking the snow, as men in red coats cross the forest. The day is overcast and the forest is shrouded in thick fog. As the soldiers get into position, a sudden volley of bullets pierces their lines. They hear the cries of the enemy and realize that they are outnumbered. The drumbeats sound and the men rush back through the trees, with bullets whizzing over their shoulders. The British soldiers retreated to their rein-forced encampment.

The Freshman-Sophomore stu-dents of Wildlands School have been watching a series of American history documentaries for Social Studies involv-ing the conquest and colonization of the new world. One of these documentaries focuses on the French and Indian war in particular, illustrating the bouts of George Washington as a young man. In it, the story is told by a few history pro-fessors who explain the facts concisely and one park ranger, who goes into de-tail describing the position of the sol-diers on two hillsides. The story is largely focused on the relationships be-tween the Europeans and Native Ameri-

cans, and how one of the bitterest defeats that the British faced could have been pre-vented by partnering with a Native Ameri-can tribe. The British were outnumbered at one point and were forced to wait for rein-forcements to arrive from the motherland. The soldiers sent from Britain were not ex-perienced in the kind of battle they were facing, and many were killed due to the false idea that their sheer numbers would overcome the French. The videos were viewed by students once a week, and were enjoyed even by those not involved in the Social Studies group.

-Josiah Wahl 9th grade

Page 11

On October 7th, 2007 our class and some mothers threw a brilliant surprise bri-dal shower for Miss Holmes. With ribbons, cake, party games, and of course presents Miss Holmes was pleasantly surprised as planned.

She claimed to have noticed some-thing going on without her knowing, yet she did admit to not even guessing it was a bri-dal shower! She also stated that while we were waiting to surprise her in our room she was hesitant of going in for fear of being in trouble, the room was dark and the door was almost completely closed after all.

We continued the party with

I would like to thank everyone that was in-volved with planning, decorating, and throwing a bridal shower for me at school the week be-fore my wedding. What a surprise! The room was decorated perfectly, the cake was delicious, and the “design a wedding dress out of toilet paper” game was very entertaining. A special thanks to Mr. Hadorn, and Paige and Katherine Wiersgalla for their organizational efforts, Mr. Hadorn and Mr. Tweed for allowing this on a school day, the students for keeping it a secret and helping with the planning, and all of the students and parents that sent warm wishes and gifts. I was honored and very touched that you all decided to plan such a special event for me. THANK YOU!

-Mrs. Seubert

THANK YOU!

VOLUME 4, I SSUE 1

Wedding Shower Bliss

The change from last year to this year is that Wildlands now has the option for students to attend ninth and tenth grade. High school curriculum has been written and revised so that Wildlands is now able to provide all criteria for a high school student on their road to graduation. This means students get to work on more of their own projects and they get more hands on learning.

Some students enjoy the ability and flexibility to be able to work on pro-jects at their own pace, instead of having a

Noticing a Difference

chips, party cake, and punch, and afterwards opened presents that some people decided to bring for her. She received some wonderful presents including decorations for her home and I believe some towels and bathroom supplies. The game we played was “dress the bride,” where the object was to wrap one person in your group up in toilet paper to be the bride, including a veil the dress and bou-quet. After the bridal shower was over we cleaned up and a week later Miss Holmes was married!! She is currently on her hon-eymoon as the new Mrs. Seubert. This was something I, and hopefully no one else, will forget.

-Rae Mason 7th grade

teacher tell you it has to be done on a certain day. Some of the projects the underclassmen have worked on are field projects such as the Lowes Creek project and the fungi project. They also have regular classes such as Math and English, but they get to work at a pace that works for them. On a normal day the students start by finding current events in the news, working on math, writing something for English, or maybe even reading a book. It’s a great way to learn and learn about things that really interest us.

-Nick Schmitt 9th grade

Above, Joey Konzen models the latest dress design. Right,

Sawyer Stubbe tries not to move, and below right, Josiah Wahl reminds us of a mummi-

fied bride. Below the group poses for a fashion show pic-

ture with the future bride.

(Front) Louie Gravrock, Nick Larson, Joey Konzen, Erika Brown, Josiah Wahl, Erin Arneson. (Back) Isaac Nitz, Sawyer Stubbe, Miss Holmes

Wildlands School Retention Rates:

• 8 students out of 14 of last years 8th grade class continues as a 9th grader

at Wildlands

• 100% of last years 7th graders are continuing as an 8th grader at Wild-

lands this year

• 100% of the high school students that were eligible to return (not

graduated or moved) did for the 207-08 school year

W ILDLANDS S CHOOL D IS TRICT O F AUGUS TA

Augusta High School E19320 Bartig Rd

A UGUST A, W I 5 47 22 Phone: 715-877-2292

Fax: 715-877-2234 wil dl an ds @ au gust a. k 12.wi . us

w ww . w il d la n d s ch o o l . n e t

Fundraising

Benefits of supporting Wildlands:

1. With a donation of $50.00 or more, you will be recog-nized as a contributor in our Wildlands’ Newsletter.

2. With a donation of $500.00 or more, you will be recog-nized on our new Wildlands’ Equipment Trailer as a Major Contributor.

Name of Contributor(s): __________________________________________

Address:

___________________________________ _____

(Internal use only. We will not give away or sell your information)

We would like to thank all those individuals and businesses who have given so generously of their time, resources, and funds in sup-port of Wildlands School. Also, thank you to those individuals who purchased Honey from Wildlands students to support our school.

Wildlands School Supporters:

Charter Bank Eau Claire

Mega Pick and Save

Scott and Debra Humrickhouse

Ted and Jan Tweed

Terry and Sue Miller

Walter’s Buildings, John Kelly

Chuck Forseth, Tom Crowe, Rick Koziel

Herb Comstock, Robin Walsh, Ken Frost, Gary Speich

Wildlands needs your support.

Wildlands has established a 501c(3) non-profit organization to support student research and activities. If you would like to help us provide students with unique learning opportunities

please use the form below. All donations are tax deductible.

Help Support

____ $10

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____ $35

____ $50

____ Other

Your donation to Wildlands School will provide students with up-to-date

research equipment, support field work opportunities, fund local field-trips, or support our senior scholar-

ships. Anyway you look at it, the money directly helps our students.

Thank you for your support!

Thank you for your support!

Donation Amount

Indicate how you’d like your donation to help Wildlands!

____ equipment/supplies

____ fieldwork/fieldtrips

____ student scholarships

____ Wildlands can decide Mail this section with your donation to:

Wildlands School * E19320 Bartig Road * Augusta, WI 54722