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Gulf Elementary School students host ‘Talk and Tour’ program

3 min read

Hundreds of elementary students at Gulf Elementary toured the school’s nature center Friday during a “Talk and Tour” session, organized by the fourth grade gifted classes after they completed a unit on botany.

While learning about botany — a type of biology devoted to the study of plants — the students carried out research in a number of different areas such as in the history of the subject, pond life, different types of spices and appropriate technology for the developing Third World.

The gifted students led their classmates, teachers and parents on 15-minute tours of the nature center behind the school.

The center featured a Zen Garden, full of sand and stones, a spice garden with cilantro, mint, Thai basil, and thyme, different types of trees and an outdoor gazebo acting as a classroom. Inside the school were student projects and a virtual tour on two touch-screen monitors.

The touch-screen system featured a map of the nature center, created by a student, which could access different topics, student research projects and activities centered around the botany unit. It was provided by the school district, according to Liz Olancin, gifted teacher at the school.

The mulch and plants, as well as the portable MP3 players that the students carried during the tour, were acquired by Olancin with grants from both the Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce and the Wal-Mart Foundation, she said.

Patricia Geer, a teacher at Gulf Elementary, was receiving a personal tour from her daughter Hanah. She was one of the parents at the school on Friday who were given a tour by their child. Geer said her favorite part of the center was the touch screens.

“The touch screen has pictures and a virtual tour with the student’s voice,” said Geer. “It has a map of the whole place and you can press a certain part of the map to learn about that area.”

Her daughter, a student at Gulf Elementary, had done her report and MP3 recording on water lilies. She said her favorite part was the pond.

At noon, the nature center tourists enjoyed a lunch provided by parents and students. Olancin said shortly before the lunch that a lot of classes had toured the center.

“We have had 32 classes this morning and 18 this afternoon,” said Olancin.

Other classes will be touring the nature center until the end of the school year, explained Olancin earlier this week.