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Volume 38 Issue 7
December 12, 2000

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Biology students get indigenous with MCC’s unique ‘Project WILD’

BY LEAENNA M. EL GHALAYINI
MESA LEGEND
Submitted December 12, 2000

Project WILD is designed to certify teachers, education majors and students to incorporate wildlife concepts into teaching activities.

George Andrejko/Arizona Game and Fish Department

Stan Cunningham, a research biologist for the Arizona Game and Fish Department, holds two sleeping cubs.

Each semester, about 25 students participate in 12 hours of instruction followed by a five-to-six hour field trip. The program begins on a Friday night and ends the next Saturday. On Saturday, students pack their lunch and spend all day drawing creatures, playing games, and singing songs as they analyze the natural environment.

Although the program uses science for its foundation, it was designed to complement any course such as English, history, art, and psychology.

According to Jay Mitchell, biology instructor at MCC, an activity may require an art or social studies student to invent an imaginary animal, draw its picture and then explain how its features will allow the animal to adapt to its environment.

"One of the comments that was made by a student was that they felt like a child again," said Ron Dinchak, MCC environmental biology instructor.

Students participating in this program range in age from 18 to 45- years-old, and these student instructors teach grades K-12 and beyond.

Currently, Dinchak is preparing for a project called "How Many Bears Can Live in This Forest?" For this project, students act like bears and are required to gather as much food as possible by retrieving special cards from an open field.

The cards not only specify the type of food and amount of water a bear must retrieve, but other components a bear may encounter as they venture through the forest. Some cards are designated KBH (killed by hunter), and RK (road kill).

To enhance the reality of the matter, some bears must act as if they are blind, traveling with cube, or have a broken leg.

This year, a drought will be simulated by placing only a few of the water cards in the field.

According to officials at the Arizona Game and Fish Department, 15 bears were found this year wandering into urban areas looking for food. As a result, "One bear was put down, a second killed by a car, and a third possibly injured by a car," said Randy Babb, information education program manager at the Game and Fish Department.

Therefore, in order for the students to survive as bears, they must not only retrieve as many cards as possible, but also retrieve the appropriate cards.

According to the Project WILD manual, each bear is required to retrieve a certain amount of water and about 80 pounds of nutritious food. When the students return to class they will analyze the circumstances which bears must endure to survive in the wild.

"It’s a lot of fun and there’s a lot of bonding going on among the students," Dinchak said.

Students are also placed on a mailing list to receive a calendar of events, references, posters, charts and newsletters from the Game and Fish Department.

Dinchak helped establish the Project WILD program at MCC in 1998, and made it possible for MCC students to receive college credit through the Service Learning Program. No other community college in the Valley offers this program.

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