Mission Statement

Rhinelander Environmental Stewardship Academy (RESA) engages secondary students to apply rigorous scientific and social sciences skills to sustain environmental systems for the health of the greater Rhinelander community. In doing so, students will become college-ready autonomous learners with the confidence and skills to pursue the widest range of post-secondary pathways.

Executive Summary

There are tremendous resources in the Rhinelander area from federal fisheries and forest labs, to educators with deep knowledge of Northwoods environmental systems to Wisconsin DNR professionals. The applied curriculum of RESA is focused on developing an active environmental literacy. Environmental Literacy is “the capacity to perceive and interpret the relative health of environmental systems and to take appropriate action to maintain, restore, or improve the health of those systems.” (Roth, 1993)

With a continuous development of strong academic skills, especially in science and math, students will undertake serious research in issues of watershed, forest ecosystems, prairie, and wildlife management to mention just a few. Work undertaken will require direct contact with the natural artifacts of a place: soils, wetlands, weather, plants, and wildlife – in conjunction with professionals involved in the work of those places. In effect, a RESA student is not merely able to flood a room with facts, graphs, and anecdotes, rather someone who deeply understands from significant field experience the sciences of natural systems: the biology, geology, hydrology, chemistry, physics, ecology, and geography.A student attending this school should expect academic rigor and high visibility evident in practical applications. For example, students will be utilizing oral abilities and content depth by interviewing a county forester, speaking to a service organization about a community topic, collecting data from the field and presenting findings to government agencies and at conferences, or making proposals to relevant restoration groups.

RESA Core Experiences

Core experiences are desired outcomes for all students enrolled in RESA. The core experiences are criteria and values that each student would experience in all classes, projects and opportunities.

• Students will interact and collaborate with natural resource partners for projects, research and learning opportunities.
  
  

• Students will engage in interdisciplinary study towards natural resources topics and issues that also meet district and state educational standards and goals.
  
  

• Students will learn and practice science and social studies through the development of teams and community involvement.
  
  

• All experiences will engage students and partners into learning opportunities that build communication and public presentation skills.
  
  

• Students will learn core subjects within an interdisciplinary and a topic based context.