Youth Workshop

From Flowers to Fish: The Natural Resources that Helped People Survive

Dorothy Birch

Whether first peoples or early colonists, they survived by relying on the bounty of natural resources here in St. Mary's County. Nature provides water, food, and materials for shelter and tool making. We will explore all of these with hands-on activities. We will use a seine net to catch small fish from near shore waters (get ready to get wet!) and then examine them up close (yes, we get to hold them) in order to identify them and learn more about them. We will also walk along the shore and in nearby green areas catching and identifying insects and finding plants and mushrooms and how they were helpful or dangerous to early people. Last, but not least, we will see how the native plants could be used to create materials and tools that helped them lead their daily lives and create complex and advanced societies and finish by making some cordage from native plants. Students will wear their cordage bracelets home and watch as they last for weeks or months.

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Dorothy Birch is the current Natural Resources Management teacher at the James A. Forrest Career and Technology Center, a part of St. Mary's County Public Schools. She teaches students in 10th-12th grades about the natural resources provided by the earth and how we can better manage and conserve them. Dorothy has taught nature and environmental science for the past 17 years, both inside the classroom and in the field, working with students of all ages. Originally raised in Reston, Virginia, Dorothy earned her environmental science undergraduate degree from Virginia Tech (1999) and her master's in environmental education from Nova Southeastern University (2006). She has studied and taught the ecosystems in the Appalachian mountains, central Texas, the Gulf Coast, and now on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. In her (very limited) free time, Dorothy likes to hike, kayak, and travel with her beloved daughter and wonderful husband.