Currents in Education: Back to School
Local teacher, students to appear in Discovery Channel film
By Jennifer L. Saunders
York Middle School teacher Jeff Wilford and members of his seventh-grade class from 2004 are featured in a new documentary, "A Year on Earth," to be released on the Discovery Channel this fall. Wilford worked with three high school students chosen from across the country to be part of the 2004 Earthbound 3 project, which serves as the basis for the film.
Courtesy photo
York Middle School teacher Jeff Wilford joins Arsen, Tyler and Jamie, three students who are featured in the new documentary film, "A Year on Earth," to be released on the Discovery Channel this fall, at the film's screening. The three students from high schools across the country were part of the 2004 Earthbound 3 project. The film also includes a cameo featuring Wilford's seventh-grade students from the same year.
Courtesy photo
When the documentary is released - an event expected to occur this fall - Wilford and several former York Middle School students will be featured in cameo roles.
"Since the beginning of 2004 I have been teaching my students about the importance of the Pantanal," Wilford said when he confirmed the upcoming release of the documentary last week. "As the world's largest wetland and one of the most bio-diverse areas on the planet, the Pantanal needs to be studied and understood."
That is just what Wilford has endeavored to do in such capacities as an educational consultant on the Earthwatch Institute's Earthbound 3 research project in 2004 and as advisor to six York High School students who worked with scientist Alexine Keuroghlian this spring.
The focus of the film, he explained, is the crisis of diminished species across the globe, what he described as one of the "gravest environmental problems" facing the world today.
In fact, he said, it was Earthbound 3 - which sent three high school students from different parts of the United States on a 10-month around-the-world journey to investigate 12 of the world's critical ecosystems - that inspired his return trip with six York High School two years later.
"During their odyssey," Wilford explained, "the three Earthbound 3 students were filmed by a Manhattan-based film company, Bahati Productions. Negotiations for the purchase of the film, titled 'A Year on Earth,' were made last summer and the film will be released this fall."
As part of their expedition, Wilford helped those three high school students connect with various schools across the country through the wonders of technology. The first of those schools was York Middle School.
"Our 'live connects' with Earthbound 3 took place during the first week of December 2004 and were recorded by Bahati for use in the film," Wilford said. "I didn't know we had made it into the final cut of the film until I was invited to a screening in Boston this past year."
Based on the excitement his students demonstrated in 2004 about connecting with high school researchers they did not know, Wilford was inspired to try a similar project with local high school students.
"All of the high school students came in to work with my students before we left, so there was a real strong personal connection," he recalled.
During their time in Brazil and upon their return, the six York High School students - Abby Boone, Michelle Carson, Meagan Gavin, Nate Green, Chris Mace and Chris Marshall - communicated with the community as well via their contributions to news articles and Wilford's expeditionpantanal.org website. The consensus was that their expedition was an experience that changed their lives.
As an educator, Wilford said that was just what he hoped the students would feel upon their return to York.
"Tragically," Wilford said, the Pantanal "is currently threatened by intense and poorly planned industrial development and could conceivably disappear within our lifetime. Scientists are frantically working to gather data to be used to draw up conservation schemes that balance the indigenous way of life in the Pantanal with the needs of the native wildlife."
Wilford's recent trips to Brazil followed previous work on several other conservation projects in the Pantanal, including a fellowship funded by National Geographic. He said he hopes to return to the Pantanal again next year, and hopes to share the experience with more local students.
"We are in the midst of the largest mass extinction in 65 million years," Wilford said. "Many scientists believe we could lose half of the 10 million species that currently inhabit the Earth within the next century."
And Wilford said, that diversity of species impacts such worldwide concerns as the spread of disease, the onset of dramatic climate change and natural disasters.
"When we experience high species loss, we lose a natural protection that benefits not just animals and plants but humankind as well," he said. "It protects the health of our food supplies, the natural environment, even our children and pets."
And if you're interested in helping protect the environment, Wilford pointed out that you don't need to go as far as Brazil to do so.
"Decisions we make every day contribute to the building up and tearing down of our Earth and the fragile habitats that inhabit it. And they are decisions that directly impact us today," he said. "Recycle, volunteer with a conservation organization, pick up litter, conserve energy and use alternative fuel sources. Even if you are living with your head in the sand thinking everything is just fine, taking these simple steps will make our earth a more enjoyable place for us, and our children and grandchildren."
