Seminole County, Florida, is a small county just north of Orlando,
Florida. We live in Sanford, the county seat. Outside town is a
place called the Environmental Center. This place used to be a
beach thousands of years ago. Now it is in the center of Florida. A
lot of fifth graders visit this place every year to learn about our
environment. 

Our class recently visited on two different days.  The first day was
our dry day. We went to a small, brown, wooden cabin that was
like a museum. Inside  were some animals that had died and some
animals that were alive. There were dead animals like a flying
squirrel, a gray fox, a bobcat, a black bear, an barn owl, and the
shell of a horseshoe crab. Some animals had died of old age and
some had been killed by automobiles. Their fur skins were
preserved and placed over plastic shapes to make them look alive.
There were live animals too.  Small black and brown turtles were
living in a swimming pool, and  an blackish tan alligator with a
long mouth was living in an aquarium. There was a hive of bees
that had a way of getting in and out of the cabin. The queen bee's
wings were painted red so that she stood out from the other bees. 

We went outside and went on  a compass hunt. There were lots of
plants and trees. We had to find certain kinds of plants like saw
palmettos and a tupelo, which is a kind of tree that won't burn
because it has a kind of chemical in it that won't burn. We learned
about the soil and organic matter. We learned how to pace
ourselves to follow a path that had been staked out. We used an
outside bathroom and when we washed our hands, we could smell
the sulfur in the water.

The second day was our wet day. We went on a wooden
boardwalk, and we saw a 2,000 year old tree. We learned about
how we exhale carbon dioxide and then the plants use it to make
food for themselves.   We went fishing and caught a reddish,
brownish crawfish that looked like a baby lobster, a black turtle
leach that looked like a leaf. We also caught dragonfly larva that
turn into dragonflies when they come out of the water.

We went on a mudwalk. We had to get in the brown mud that
looked like chocolate but smelled nasty like rotting cabbage. It was
very cold and came up to our waists. We had to watch out for toe-
trippers, which were tree roots. We had to go into a freezing creek
to wash off after. We couldn't get back on the bus unless all the
mud was washed off. We had to wear garbage bags over our
clothes because we were soaking wet. 

The Environmental Center is a wonderful place to visit to learn
about the environment. We highly recommend you visit if you are
ever in Seminole County.

 

Mr. Brown's Fifth Grade Class 1997-98
Pam Barney, Tech Specialist

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