Ep 16 | Science Over Screens? The Roy Hyatt Center

SPEAKER_00 0:00

It was really neat. Uh today I just had a kid. We I mean everybody's busy looking down in their microscopes, and this kid just goes, I'm a scientist now. Oh my god. You know, and it was just one of those things. This is what the environmental center can can offer to these kids. It's just it just light bulb popped on. He's like, I'm a scientist now. And it was it was really amazing.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Welcome to the Voices United in Education podcast. Each week we showcase the teachers, administrators, and community members who go the extra mile to contribute to the success of every student in Escambia County. You'll meet the real people behind the titles and learn about the amazing resources to support every student's success. Is it possible to get kids interested in science and give them a break from screen time? My next guest thinks so. They are the science specialist for Escambia County Public Schools and the teacher on special assignment for the Roy Hyatt Center. Together, they've combined their passions for the outdoors, science, and teaching to inspire the next generation. And today they're going to share what's happening on the 320 acres of the Roy Hyatt Center and how it's sparking lifelong scientific interest, curating curiosity and natural discovery, science devotees, Cheana Novotny and Adam Bretschneider. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having us. Thank you. You are teacher on special assignment, Adam. I have to say this sounds very James Bond.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

It is and it isn't. It just means that I have the ability to teach whatever grade level comes out and whatever students are there. So I'm technically certified as a secondary science teacher of biology and chemistry. And our other colleague out at the environmental center is Molly O'Connor, and she's a teacher on special assignment as well. And she's certified to teach elementary. So as teachers on special assignment, we basically can see any grade level, any student that comes out.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

I'm going to stick with my James Bond theory. It sounds like you have a combination of a very specific set of skills, although that was Liam Neeson. So I may be crossing my movies. Perhaps I should stay away from movie analogies altogether.

SPEAKER_00 2:23

That's all right. But uh the Environmental Center is a very very, very special place, and you do need some very special um skills and abilities to uh to work out there. So we can get into that a little later.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

Yes, I would like to get into that a little bit later. First, I want to know what inspired you to go into science.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Oh, goodness. Um, science for me started as a child. I was always outside. I was always um running through the fields in the woods. Um, I would collect creatures and uh bring them into the house and be promptly told to leave the house. Um, so as a young child, I was always um outside doing something in nature, um adventuring. Um, and then uh that kind of led into college where I got a degree in environmental biology. And uh there a teacher saw my just passion for um the outdoors and the natural world and asked if I wanted to be a TA for them. And so I started teaching um as a sophomore in college, um the other science um students in these biology classes. So juniors and seniors were um in these classes, and so they they're like, wow, you can you can teach too. Why don't why don't you become a teacher? And uh and so I said, no, I'm not ready for the classroom yet. I um saw um my professors and those mentors had real-world experience, and those were the ones that really made an impact on me. Um my chemistry teacher or professor, he um he was an air, a retired Air Force um biochemical warfare specialist. And so by having that kind of background, he could bring things to the class that a book could not. So if I was going to go into education, um, I wanted that experience uh first to bring um to the table. So um after college, I went and did a lot of seasonal jobs, um, field work in Idaho, fisheries work in Michigan, a lot of environmental and outdoor education, Colorado, Michigan, different places like that. Um, and I met my wife, and uh, seasonal jobs just don't quite pay the bills. So um I got my teaching certificate and got into uh the profession of teaching high school.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

And now you bring all the cool things to the table for the kids who get to go to the Roy Hyatt Center. And Cheyenna, you are a published scientist, correct? Correct, yes. And very passionate about education, which I love about you. You would be an incredible asset, I mean, at any school. So why Escambia County Public Schools?

SPEAKER_02 4:54

Um, I I really this is new for me, this job. I came out of the classroom just a few months ago to help all of the science teachers in the district. And Escambia County is a really interesting district. We have such a diverse population of kids that, you know, run the gambit uh for all kinds of uh of different kids, and they're just great. We have a great size district, it's not too big, it's not too small, we have a lot of really good schools, and we have a lot of really good teachers. But the environmental center is really one of our crown jewels. It is the neatest place to go out, and I am so glad that all of our kids get to have a chance to go out there. It's really, really cool.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

There are so many resources that I'm just learning about doing this show that I had no idea about. And so I'm excited to bring them to parents in this form, in the form of podcasting, in the form of stories, and just humanizing the people behind the titles, behind you know, the website pages. So I'm I'm so glad that y'all are here. So Escambia County, you said it has a very large, diverse uh population of students. Is that why you chose Escambia County Public Schools? Or what about it is special to you that would make you, as like such a talented teacher, such a talented scientist, stay in the county?

SPEAKER_02 6:15

I would have to say it's the environment here, the physical environment here. We have so many different environments. We have the beach, we have the estuary, we have the north end of the county, which is more agricultural. And so we have students that have experienced science at their house in a lot of different ways. So they bring a lot into the classroom that you can really use. And we can go to different places, not just field trips to the Roy Hyatt Environmental Center, but also at our school campuses. A lot of our school campuses have little streams running through or, you know, an estuary in the backyard. And I just think Escambia County is a beautiful place. And so the school system is a really nice place to do science.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

That's a good point. We have such a unique uh like offering here in North Florida because we are, you know, would you like to go to the beach? Okay. Would you like to go to a sunflower field? Okay. The forest, we got you. You know, the only thing we don't really have is mountains, but when once you see nature through the eyes of scientific discovery, you can't unsee it. And that really changes your experience as you move through the world because you pass by a Yopon hollybush and you're like, oh, I read about that. The Native Americans would make tea out of that, you know, and you you just feel what you become a fun fact nerd like me. So I want to know about the Roy Hyatt Center. Who, first of all, is Roy?

SPEAKER_00 7:41

Okay. Um, Roy Hyatt was a high school biology teacher for Escambia County Public Schools, and he always had a dream to have an environmental center. So he did a lot of um work to propose this idea. And eventually he did get a small building. I think it was the book depository on Haynes Street. It's been torn down now, I-110 runs over it. Um, and uh that was kind of his headquarters in 1968, is when he opened it. He did move around and he would he also went to the LN Railroad building. Uh, I think they rented part of that, and now that's the UWF Archaeology Building downtown, that building. And um, and so he was there, and that was right next to the bay, and he was able to take kids out there and run plankton nets and look at things under the microscope, and so that was really great. Um, so he was a dreamer and he knew he wanted this environmental center. Well, where Roy Hyatt Um Environmental Center sits right now, this land, 320 acres, only 120 of it is in our name. Um, but 320 acres were part of K Field. It was an outlying landing field for World War II aircraft to uh practice on. And the Navy had it, they stopped using it, and they said, We are going to give this land to any organization that can turn it into a nonprofit for 30 years. So Roy caught wind of that, and a few other community partners caught wind of that, and they said, There's 320 acres out in Cantoma that we might be able to have. So they um petitioned the school board and wrote up a proposal, and the school board was like, yes, let's get this land for um the environmental center and for Scambia County Public Schools. And so they were um they were awarded this land um north of Kingsfield uh road. And so Kingsfield Elementary sits on it, ransom middle school sits on it, Tate has some agricultural land that's a part of it, and then 120 acres belongs to the Roy Hyatt Environmental Center. So 30 years later, they handed over the deed to Scamby County Public Schools and the land was uh formerly ours.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

Wow, what a story. That's so amazing. And why is science at the Roy Hyatt Center different than, say, classroom science?

SPEAKER_02 10:05

Well, because it's so experiential. You can do labs in the classroom, but the Roy Hyatt property is really diverse as well. It's a pine forest, there's a pitcher plant bog, and so there's a lot of different uh areas, environments, microenvironments that the kids can go and see that they may not have access to on their campus. Um, plus it's just bigger, you know, it's acres and acres. So the students can go on the boardwalks for how many miles of boardwalks are there?

SPEAKER_00 10:32

Um it's uh probably about a third of a mile, but we have basically miles of trail that connect to the boardwalks. We only have boardwalks over the actual wet areas that we couldn't walk on land. But uh, yeah, there's a lot of ups and downs. We'd have some hills in there, but yeah, to go down into the pitcher plant bog, kind of the swamp areas, we have boardwalks over top of that.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

And so it's a much bigger area for these kids to explore to see, you know, a vast amount of forest where they may not get to see that in their classroom or in their urban school. You know, right outside of the school might be another building and then another building and a lot of concrete and asphalt. So it's really nice to get them out to see these different things. There's a butterfly house, there's an aquarium house, you know what I mean? So it's lots of stuff that no teacher on their own would be able to house in their one classroom.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

That makes sense. Uh, why is it, how do they work together with the schools? Like what is the collaboration? Because it's owned and operated by Escambie County Public Schools, right? So, how does that work as far as collaboration and participation of the students?

SPEAKER_00 11:35

Okay. So what we do is we have a calendar, and uh in the fall, we open up this calendar and we see um second and fifth grade students. Um, that's just how the field trips have worked out in the past historically. Um, and uh in a day and a half we max out our calendar. It is fully scheduled, and we typically see anywhere from five to six thousand students a year out there at the environmental center. So um today it was Myrtle Grove. Tomorrow it's um we have NB Cook coming, and so we will see typically a school grade, so second grade or fifth grade, two or three days, um, we'll see all of them, and then we'll move on to we'll have another school. So it's through the years the program has been um built, and now it is um a hot commodity to get into. And so we put out an email and say, Roy Hyatt calendars open, second and fifth grade teachers go ahead and sign up. They call, and our secretary is busy all day.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

It's like a maroon five concert. You know, you got to get in while it's hot. You set your alarm. So who's eligible to attend the Roy Hyatt Center? You said second and fifth graders, are there qualifications that they have to meet either as students, or does the school have to fit some kind of criteria?

SPEAKER_00 12:55

No, no, we're we're open for everybody, and anybody can come. Um, and so we do prioritize that there are Scammy County Public School students. And uh and so, yes, it really comes down to just fifth grade is the tested science grade, and uh, they've historically been coming because we want to do our best to give them the experience that allows them to succeed on those um those science tests. And so um fifth grade they have um they come and then uh historically other grades had different field trips that they already went on, and second grade back in the day didn't. And so it's like, oh, we've got the environmental center, let's send them out there. And so now second grade loves it, fifth grade loves it, and it's hard for basically anybody else to get in. So we we will typically see each elementary school kid twice in their in their career of going through um our schools.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

And do virtual school students can they attend not the home school students, but I'm talking about the ones that are enrolled in the Scamby County virtual.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

Right. Okay, so the other uh entities can come because we do have some um um constraints for busing. Um, like um our buses won't run field trips the first week of school, um, the week before Christmas break, and um because of exams and stuff like that. So Scamie County public won't run buses those days. So we have those days open for other community um schools to come. So there's occasionally certain schools that call us and like, we really want to get out there, can we get out there? And actually, we have a few days available that we do see some of these schools and they do come out here and bring their kids. So it is open to the community, but obviously Escambie County public gets the priority.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

I mean, I feel like this is like the golden nugget of of school experiences that you know it sells out fast, kids. So get on it while you can. That's pretty exciting.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

Yeah, typically, typically our days fill up quickly, and unfortunately, there are times that we do have to turn some of the other um entities away.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

Wow. Okay, so the days fill up quickly. Take me through a day at the Roy Hyatt Center. Tell tell me about uh an example of a school lesson that maybe y'all do or what a student would experience.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

So I'm gonna kick this to Adam, but I do want to say before they get to choose somewhat what they do. And I did want to speak to the curriculum for the second graders, is obviously different than for the fifth graders. And it's curriculum that Adam and Molly have put together that's gonna enhance what they're learning in their regular class. So it's not this totally separate thing that they're not ever gonna see again or use again in their classroom. It's part of what they're already learning. So it's integrated in and the kids can have that connection. Oh, we learned about this in the book, and there it is right in front of my face. So the kids that are in second and the kids that are in fifth, their teachers will request ahead of time to Adam and Molly, we would like to do this program or we would like to do this program. And those programs that they've built are aligned to the standards. So when they get there.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

Yeah. So we'll get kids um coming in and they'll get off the bus and immediately we'll just do a quick introduction and tell them kind of the rules and procedures because obviously my classroom could be a five-acre plot of land with trees, and um, they're gonna be using GPS uh units and walking all around. So there's a few different procedures that need to take place, but we'll do a quick little intro. And uh typically because it's myself and Molly, um, I'll take half of the kids and she'll take half of the kids. And so, like today, um, it was um infinitely big, infinitely small was our lesson for the day. And so first we jumped into the inflatable planetarium and we did an infinitely big lesson, which we um talk all about the tested standards of which direction does the sun appear to move, what are this, what is in the solar system. And with this planetarium, we can actually travel to these planets and land on them. And because of the Hubble telescope, we have some high-definition imagery, and because of um landing on the moon, we have all those images programmed into the planetarium so you can see Buzz Aldrin and uh standing off you know, off in a crater. Um, and then we can also go to Mars. So we land on Mars and we have images of what Curiosity saw, and so it's it's really neat. And so we give them that planetarium show, and so that's infinitely big. And then uh after that they go straight to the microscope lab and we talk about um the living things, big and small. And so we talk about the blue whale being the largest um living and or ever lived animal on the planet, and we go and we visualize that outside and we walk it off and we do non-standard measurement of how many kids is it gonna take to make the length of the blue whale. And then we come back, talk about what he eats. We go through the food chain of um plankton and krill, and we get pond water and we put it under the microscope, and uh the kids try to identify um you know what they're seeing. Um, it was really neat. Uh today I just had a kid. We I mean, everybody's busy looking down in their microscopes, and this kid just goes, I'm a scientist now. Oh my god. You know, and it was just one of those things. This is what the environmental center can can offer to these kids. It's just it just light bulb popped on. He's like, I'm a scientist now. And it was it was really amazing. So yeah, so that's the cutest thing ever.

SPEAKER_02 18:12

Yeah. Well, and to set the stage for the microscope lab, because I think it's hard to visualize, every child gets their own microscope. Oh, yeah, which is a big deal. You know, I'm sure if parents ask their kids, you know, do you guys use microscopes in the lab or at school? It's sharing. It's I don't, I'm not really seeing under there what you're seeing under there. Is it the pink thing next to the pink thing? But Adam also has a video scope. So on the big TV is what they're supposed to be looking at so they can really get what's going on under the microscope, manipulate it themselves. And it's really hard to provide 30 microscopes to every classroom in the district because you know, they break, they're expensive, they're hard to store, et cetera. So that's something that is just really unique to the the center.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

Yeah, I'm starting to get a picture painted of the impact that this would have on kids because that's really, you know, why these programs exist is to reach the kids that um would have an enhanced educational experience because of the kinesthetic way of learning. Or like me, I'm almost like 100% kinesthetic. You should see me at yoga. I can't follow verbal instructions. I have to like eyeball the yoga instructor. And I'm like, is her left my left? So for kids that are like me, this is life-changing. It's completely different because you realize um how exciting the natural world is, how you need to take care of it, and that you're not dumb. You know, yeah. That you you're a smart kid, you just might learn differently. This is so cool. And he hasn't even talked about touching the snakes. Oh, tell me about the snakes. I want to hear if that's real kinesthetic.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

So yeah. So um then typically, um, if it's a fifth grade, we we do have a second grade reptile program. It's full out. They sit in the reptile room and we bring out all the different reptiles and they get to touch and they get to um put the snake around their neck if they want. But with fifth grade, um, because the reptile lesson isn't um one of the programs, it's kind of like the goodbye gift. Um, so right either, either typically if they're eating lunch with us, so we have a pavilion, it's got picnic tables, it's covered, it's got fans, um, they could be eating lunch with us and we'll just do a short, quick meet and greet with the snake there. Um, but yeah, we will have um parents of the students come out and they're like, I came out here, is that the same snake? I remember putting a snake around my neck. And the parent will then be like, oh, well, what else did you do? And they can name everything that they've done 20 years later. Um, you know, and the it's just amazing. So yeah, so we'll we'll get Todd, the Florida king snake, out. Uh we do have multiple, but Todd is typically the uh the mainstay that we bring out. He sounds so sophisticated with a name like Todd. He is, he's a wonderful snake to have out there. And uh so we'll teach about him and what makes a uh king snake special, is that they can eat not they can eat venomous snakes, and uh, but Todd is non-venomous and he really is like a wet spaghetti noodle around your neck. Um and so we will, if they want to, we do not force anything, we'll just drape them around their neck, or if they just want to pet him and feel how smooth and not slimy the scales actually are. Um, and um they will remember that. So the kids got off the bus today. They're like, are we gonna see the snake? I remember coming in second grade. We saw a snake. And so it's just those experiences that will just solidify in their minds what they've done and what they've learned.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

I love that so much. I can't believe our time is coming to a close already. I think uh I'm a I'm biased though, because I love this subject. I love talking about nature and getting kids uh excited about it too. I think it's so important. Um, what else do you feel like if if you were trying to talk to a parent, let's say, and I'd love to hear from each of you on this, if you were talking to a parent and they said, but but why is this important? I want my kid to be really good at filling the blank with any other subject, math, business, whatever it is for that parent. Why would science in this way be something I should prioritize?

SPEAKER_02 22:22

I think for me, it allows kids to make discoveries than they're not enforced being forced to make. So they're just making discoveries on their own. It's just a free day for them to be themselves and learn and just see things. Um, there's a big aquarium classroom and there's all kinds of hidden stuff in there. And I think kids learn best when they are allowed the space to sort of learn in their own way. And for many, many of the kids in our county, this is a place like they have never been. And so to just experience that newness is really just uh ideal.

SPEAKER_00 23:03

And I think for me, um, science is just a way of knowing. It's a framework of thinking, and it really is curiosity. It's just curiosity based. You ask a good question, well, then you need to research it or you need to figure it out. And so for any other discipline, even if it's literature, you can make an observation, a question pops into your head, well, you still need to research that. That's still doing science, maybe not in the subject that is, you know, earth science, space science, life science. But when you start problem solving, you're going to develop uh your mind and you're gonna be firing more neurons and connecting those. And when you get both sides of the brain working together, um, the capacity to learn and to understand grows. And so that's why this hands-on and experiential learning is so important for these kids because it really is developing their brain and it is developing their character more than just maybe a textbook would.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

So well said. Where can parents find information about the Roy Hyatt Center? What website should they go to?

SPEAKER_00 24:09

Okay. Well, you can go to the um, you can just Google search Roy Hyatt Environmental Center, and uh typically the district website will pop up first, but we also have a Facebook page, and that Facebook page um you can just um search Roy Hyatt Environmental Center and it'll it'll pop up as well there.

SPEAKER_01 24:25

Perfect. Thank you all so much. This was amazing.

SPEAKER_00 24:28

Welcome, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

Voices United in Education is a production of Escambia County School District. Special thanks to Pine Forest High School for their recording studio facilities and hospitality.