The Great Smoky Mountains National Park hosted the North Carolina Association for Advancement of Teaching (NCAAT) for a week-long seminar at their newly acquired Purchase Knob property in Haywood County.

The Purchase, which includes a home and more than 500 acres, was donated to the GSMNP in 2000 by Kathryn McNeil and Voit Gilmore, for the purpose of creating an environmental education center.

At 5,000 feet in elevation, the Purchase provided the perfect base camp for NCAAT’s “High-Elevation Ecology of the Great Smoky Mountains” seminar. The seminar included programs on air quality by Jim Renfro of GSMNP, bird ecology, introduction to bird watching and introduction to bird banding by naturalist Mark Hopey. There was also a program on the ecological address of the Purchase and the surrounding area, plus a look at the role of salamanders in the ecology by Susan Sachs, resource education specialist with GSMNP.

Twenty-three educators from across the state attended. Donna Glee Williams, NCAAT center fellow, said NCAAT strives to present a balanced slate of programs throughout the year.

“The environment is very important and it’s important to work environmental education into the curriculum,” Williams said.

“NCAAT’s programs are academically rigorous but we want educators to fall in love with the world so they can teach about their passions.”

Dennis Dudley of Elizabeth City teaches ninth grade science at Northeastern High. He came because of his passion.

“After 29 years as an educator, I am now teaching one of my true loves,” said the earth-environment teacher.

“This has been a great program with wonderful presentations and applications I can take back home with me,” Dudley said.

But you didn’t have to go all the way across the state to find enthusiastic participants. Bill Dalton of Canton teaches science and biology at Central Haywood High School. He said that while he had heard much about the Purchase, he had never seen it. Now that he has he hopes to come back.

“I would love to bring my class up here,” Dalton said.

Sachs said the seminar was a pilot program. She said the GSMNP was looking at different groups and organizations that could help the Purchase fulfill its mission as an educational center.

“We thought of NCAAT because their mission is so similar to ours,” Sachs said.

Naturalist Mark Hopey ascribes to that mission. Hopey has an environmental science degree from University of North Carolina-Asheville. He has banded birds in Oregon, Michigan and along the North Slope of Alaska. During the winters he teaches Outward Bound classes in Florida.

“I enjoy birding, but I see it as a tool. I’m an educator,” Hopey said. “I want to stimulate and excite the teachers about exploring the environment.”

According to Sachs, members of the park’s physical resources management team would study the Purchase and surrounding area after the seminar to determine the impact.

“We want to be sure we’re not having a negative impact on the very resources we’re trying to educate people about,” she said.

One of the missions of the Purchase is to combine public education and park research. Data gathered from the salamander field studies and bird banding during NCAAT’s seminar will be used by park resource managers.

 

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