Lakeside School teacher is award-worthy

Education is a key component in conservation and educating children is especially important. They are tomorrow’s stewards of the land. One area teacher has been recognized for her outstanding effort to educate the fourth graders at Lakeside Elementary School about their place in conservation. Elizabeth Huselid was nominated for the Minnesota Association of Soil & Water Conservation District (MASWCD) Teacher Award by the Chisago Soil & Water Conservation District. Huselid developed an after-school Junior Naturalist program for fourth graders. The program began in 2009. The Junior Naturalists learn about earth friendly actions and develop a passion for nature. Some of the different topics covered by the program include rain barrels, reducing-reusing-recycling, tree and plant identification, composting, rain gardens, butterfly gardens, wildlife habitat, animal tracking, bird identification, macroinvertebrate species and water quality of Green Lake, and butterfly and insect identification. Huselid uses the opportunity of the school’s landscaping and position on a lake to bring many of these lessons outside. Lakeside Elementary School has five rain gardens where students can get a first hand lesson about what they are and how they work. The Junior Naturalists are also exposed to a variety of other groups, including Kids for Saving Earth, Audubon Society, MN DNR Wild River State Park, SWCD. Her outstanding conservation lessons extend to the everyday classroom as well. She is able to incorporate lessons about saving energy, natural resource conservation, and water quality into the curriculum. In 2010, Huselid’s class participated in the Chisago SWCD’s Classroom Rain Barrel Contest sponsored by East Central Energy’s Operation Round Up. The students received a plain blue barrel and transformed it into a rain barrel with a conservation theme, while also learning about water quality. The Chisago Soil and Water Conservation District would like to recognize Elizabeth Huselid for her efforts in exposing her students to nature and teaching them the value of conservation. Congratulations Elizabeth! For more information on the Chisago SWCD and other educational opportunities visit our web site at www.chisag oswcd.org.