Judge Memorial High School, Salt Lake City, Utah

By Elizabeth Terp,
Volunteer

George Angelo, Science teacher, and Rich Bartman, Principal, have brought thirty-two students here for a week of Winter Ecology. When asked what draws him to continue bringing students here, Bartman states that it is a great experience with knowledgeable people who work well with kids in a safe and fun environment. His school added a day in Yellowstone and brought Teton Science Graduate Program instructors along with them because they wanted total involvement with instructors who taught the geology, animals and expanded the science piece.

Angelo likes the Teton Science Schools’ approach, how we develop learning at all levels, and put more nurturing into teaching. He values coming to the Kelly campus and the opportunity to take students out of that busy world and help them find inner peace. He values the journaling students do here and the science vocabulary building that is reinforced in all activities. He particularly appreciated the way graduate student, Aliesje King, “lights up the evening program with her energy. She truly is having fun with it!” He noted that the graduate instructors really embody their whole self in the program. “Students see that they are passionate about what they teach.”

Angelo likes to see the confidence the week builds in students. They become part of a team and team learning. They have fun with this new family and share more compassion for each other in this week of immersion in science. They clean up their language, learn to do research and take that back with them. There are Aha days with kids saying, “This is the best day of my life!”