Passport to Texas

Burnie Kessner teaching teachers archery

Back to School Week: Archery in Schools Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Archery—the original shooting sport—fell out of favor as a component of physical education in public schools some years ago. But, now, thanks to the National Archery in Schools program, interest in the sport is growing fast.

The National Archery in Schools program certifies teachers as instructors. Educators learn the program just as they will teach it to their students.

06—It’s an all day workshop to become a certified instructor. They learn with the same equipment and the same method.

Burnie Kessner is archery coordinator for Texas Parks and Wildlife.

10—We use international style archery. It’s bulls-eye target faces, Olympic size. We use Olympic whistle commands, and they learn the same way worldwide.

Kessner says while certified instructors prepare students for tournaments, the successes a child experiences extend beyond the bulls-eye.

13—So, when a kid is shooting archery, and they’re on the shooting line—they’re all the same. So, it doesn’t matter what kind of home they go home to after the tournament, when they’re at the tournament, they’re the same as everyone else. So, that’s the self-esteem building piece; it’s standardized.

Learn more about bringing the Archery in Schools program to your district on the Texas parks and Wildlife Website.

Our series receives support from the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program… working to increase fishing, hunting, shooting and boating opportunities in Texas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Project Wild

Back to School Week: Project Wild Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Ag Science Teacher Emily Rollison doesn’t mind if her Rivera ISD students get wild in the classroom. In fact, it’s part of the curriculum.

11— I have wildlife classes that I teach every year. And I use Project Wild as part of the curriculum in my class to reinforce the TEKS and the standards that I’m supposed to meet.

Project WILD is an environmental and conservation education program from Parks and Wildlife that emphasizes understanding wildlife and natural resources.

19— I’ve been working with Project Wild for probably the last seven years now. I taught it at A&M, and now I’m teaching it in the high school classroom. My students really enjoy the projects and activities that they’re exposed to, because we get outside of the classroom. And even the indoor activities really enhance their creativity.

Project WILD helps students develop critical thinking, too.

20 —They do a lot of problem-solving in Project WILD – especially when they have to determine what the outcome is going to be in the middle of the project. And we’ll stop in the middle and I’ll ask, ‘What do you think is going to happen?” Then we’ll go on and complete the project, and then we’ll discuss: ‘Is that what you thought was going to happen, or is it not –and why or why not?’

Learn about TPW outreach and education programs on the TPW website.

The WSFR program supports our series and funds diverse conservation projects throughout Texas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Hunter Education

Back to School Week: Hunter Education Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

At Allen High School—near Dallas—getting outside is part of the curriculum.

16— It’s a curriculum that teaches the TPW hunter education, boater education, and also the angler education… along with some other things like the National Archery in the Schools program camping, outdoor survival and things like that.

Jason Anderson is an Outdoor Adventure educator at the school. Students who take the course may earn an elective or physical education credit.

13— It’s quite amazing; our first year I started out with 111 students. This past year I had 275, and enrolled for next year I have 590 students enrolled in our outdoor adventure class and hunter education.

Anderson was a PE teacher and coach, but says the outdoor curriculum, especially Hunter Education, is so popular, he had to give up coaching.

19 — Students are really interested in hunting. In Collin County you couldn’t deer hunt for a long time. Well, two years ago TPW opened up where you now have an archery season. So, a lot of our students are really interested in the bow hunting part of it. There’s still a little bit of land left in Collin County where they can actually do some deer hunting.

Jason Anderson says the ethics students learn in hunter education stays with them throughout their lives. Bring TPW outreach and education programs to your classroom learn how on the TPW website.

Support provided by Ram Trucks. Doing what’s right and good regardless of the degree of difficulty — takes guts. Those are the people who build Ram trucks. RAM.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Teaching kids to fish.

Back to School Week: Outdoor Education Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Dave Robertstad, a physical education teacher in the Corsicana School District, says the obesity epidemic among school-aged children made him think outside the gymnasium for answers.

06— I came up with the idea of doing anything I can to encourage kids to get outside and move.

He turned to his own love of the outdoors for inspiration.

09—And so I started looking for activities that would interest our kids, and fishing, and hiking, and birding and those kinds of activities came up — and I started to develop that.

He tapped into Texas Parks and Wildlife Outreach and Education programs, becoming a certified angler education instructor, but didn’t stop there.

15 —I’m doing boater education this weekend; I’ve done archery in the schools training through Texas Parks and Wildlife – just to provide my students an exposure to different activities outdoors, with the hope that they will become more fit just because they’re going to want to go out and do those things.

Dave Robertstad even gives students extra credit points for going to state parks – points they can use like cash in their school store.

13— It encourages those kids to get outdoors and say, ‘Hey, I think that’s important.’ And I’m going to give you some extra credit, and you can use those points in our store and reward yourself for making the effort to get outdoors and do something.

Learn about TPW outreach and education programs on the TPW website. We receive funding from Chevrolet, supporting outdoor recreation in Texas; because there’s life to be done. For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Trapped Wild Hogs

TPW TV: Hog Wild! Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Hunting by itself cannot solve the problem of feral pigs in Texas.

16— Texas Department of Agriculture estimates that pigs produce $52 million a year in agricultural damage alone. Those estimates go way higher than that whenever we start talking about all the damage that is incurred annually.

Justin Foster is a Wildlife Biologist and Research Coordinator at Kerr Wildlife Management Area. A segment – called Hogs Wild – on the Parks and Wildlife PBS TV series, produced by Alan Fisher, follows Foster and his team as they evaluate palatability and lethality of bait formulations and active ingredients for controlling this destructive species.

19— It’s really a pig pesticide of sorts; there’s been some success in Australia using a similar substance. It can be delivered through specialized feeders to just the hogs, and is considered a rather humane way to deal with the feral hog problem. There’s still ongoing testing being done right now.

Viewers have a front row seat as biologists trap, tag, and release the pigs, which they’ll monitor over time to determine the bait’s effectiveness. Justin Foster.

[06 – Pig squeal…clatter of pigs in pens]

10 — Nationwide and internationally, there are lots of people working on this topic. And we are very optimistic. [ambiance]

Hogs Wild airs the week of August 11 on the Texas Parks and Wildlife PBS TV series. The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.