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    »     AMARILLO ISD

17

 “I’m not scared of bugs,” shrugs fi ft h-grader Lanie Jones. A net 
dripping with water and full of tiny bits of sand, swampy pond 
plants and, hopefully, some pond creatures needs inspecting, 
and Lanie is ready to get to it.

It’s an early fall morning, cool and cloudy. Th

 e kind of day 

that might be considered good fi shing weather. Ceta Canyon, 
a retreat center nestled in a corner of Palo Duro Canyon, is 
bustling with Puckett Elementary students. Lanie and company 
are fi nally experiencing the highly-anticipated rite of passage for 
fi ft h-graders at their school—Outdoor Education Day.

Wearing knee-high waders, students stand in a stream and 

comb back stalks of golden grass and cattails taller than they 
are and peer into the water. When the time is right, each one 
casts a net, scooping up layers of sediment from the stream, 
sift ing through it as though they are panning for gold. In this 
adventure, bugs, spiders and water creatures in all their various 
stages of development are the gilded treasure.

“Did I get something?” Excited squeals echo across the canyon.
Nine-year-olds, who only hours before might have shrieked 

in terror at an unfamiliar creature, bug out in a good way.

“Th

 at’s the best part about it, that moment when they’re 

just like, ‘OH MY GOSH!’ You know they’re hooked. Th

 ey’re 

hooked on science and it’s just so fun,” exclaims Aubrey Howard, 
a graduate student studying biology at West Texas A&M 
University.

Aubrey’s contagious enthusiasm encourages budding 

scientists to uncover an appreciation for all sorts of critters, like 
the water strider, a mosquito-looking insect that glides across 
the water as though it walks on it. Th

 e experience keeps her 

coming back to volunteer her expertise during Amarillo ISD 
outdoor education events.  

“Everyone has this huge fear of bugs, which I get. But everyone 

also has two modes. Th

 ere’s the normal mode, and then out here 

there’s science mode. Th

 ese kids get in this scientist mode and 

they’re no longer afraid of the bugs because they become more 
familiar with them,” says Aubrey.

Aft er getting a better view under a microscope, Lanie is ready 

to share her fi ndings. “I got three nymphs and a white spider,” 
she boasts. “A nymph is a version of the adult, but smaller.”

Th

 e irony of that description as it might also apply to this 

group of students isn’t lost on Dr. Nabarun Ghosh, a professor 
in the Department of Life, Earth and Environmental Sciences 
at West Texas A&M. Dr. Ghosh has been a part of outdoor 
education for 15 years, plenty long enough for fi ft h-graders to 
undergo their own metamorphosis, transforming from wide-
eyed elementary school students to eager college scholars who 
remember fi rst meeting him at this very event. “Th

 ey’ll say, ‘Dr. 

Ghosh, we know you. We collected phytoplankton at outdoor 
education and you showed it to us in a microscope,’” says 
Nabarun. “Th

 at is really an ‘a-ha’ moment when they remember. 

I do research in diff erent areas, including biotechnology, like the 
water and air quality of the Texas Panhandle. I believe it is very 
important that fi rst we must teach the little kids because they are 
our future citizens.”

“We talk about real world connections all the time,” agrees 

Puckett science and social studies teacher D’Lynn Niblock. She 
brought a group of fi ft h-graders to Ceta Canyon for the school’s 
fi rst outdoor day 20 years ago. “I don’t know that I have a favorite 
moment, but the look in their eyes when they tell you they love 
it, I love that part of it,” says D’Lynn. Since then, she’s watched 

“

These kids get in this scientist mode and 

they’re no longer afraid of the bugs because 
they become more familiar with them. 

”