The Riddle Elementary School Arboretum was founded by Ron Ghere and Nancy Brachbill, both Fifth Grade Teachers in the school. Bruce Barnard, the principal at the school since it first opened, was instrumental in its development with support and encouragement as he allowed the teachers to move their classrooms “outside”. Ghere were both part of Project STAR (Science/Mathematics and Technology Appli
cations and Research), and it was from this project that the idea was born. Project STAR is a professional development program that focuses on the core concepts in the sciences and mathematics, as well as training with new and emergent technologies that have the potential to incorporate mathematics into scientific investigations for teachers of upper elementary students. Project STAR places emphasis on inquiry investigations that occur in an authentic environment of the students’ own school and local community. This project utilizes the local school grounds as an inquiry site. The students are involved in direct explorations of their environment and produce and share information, findings, and data sets with other students and scientists from the project. Teachers and their students not only have firsthand direct experience in a field setting, but are also connected electronically with others willing to share their observations and collected data. Project STAR was funded by the Illinois State Board of Education as part of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Partnership Program. The grant was awarded to Eastern Illinois University in partnership with Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville for selected teams of dedicated and diligent math and science teachers from 20 school districts in the state. The project Directors were Dr. Marylin Lisowski (EIU) and Dr. Robert Williams (SIU/E). Brachbill, and since then every tree has been planted by Riddle’s Fifth Grade students. We currently have 62 trees that represent 46 different species.
