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well hello and welcome to outdoor oklahoma i'm todd craighead you know it's often said that today's youth are tomorrow's future and when it comes to preserving our outdoor heritage well it's essential that we pass on that heritage to the students of today that's why we at the wildlife department have made such a strong effort to introduce hunting and
fishing the literally thousands of young people in oklahoma we created and implemented what we call our campfire model so what is the campfire model in 2004 the wildlife department introduced the archery in the schools program that was being used in several other states just a handful of schools implemented the program that first year and now more
than 500 schools across the state are teaching archery in the schools so back to this campfire model we started out with one log our archery in the schools program well that log started a spark and then we began to add more programs or logs to the campfire and today that camp fire is burning strong as we now have six
different curriculums that schools are implementing in their outdoor education classes all over the state archery in the schools hunter education explore bow hunting fishing in the school's explore bowfishing and scholastic shooting sports thanks to our outdoor education campfire model thousands and thousands of students are receiving daily exposure
to hunting and fishing right there in school you know what's kinda neat about how our program started when they originated 2004 with the archery in the schools programs just one curriculum and back then there was a few schools that were doing an outdoor physical education class now since we have so many
different curriculums and materials a lot of our schools have created specifically an outdoor pe class where they teach these programs as part of their physical education class all these programs come with a equipment kit as well as curriculum that the school can use and the great thing about them is they can implement them when it fits
into their curriculum it doesn't rely on us showing up and doing a program they've got everything at their disposal so if they want to do something on monday that's a archery program and then on tuesday they do fishing they can do that so this is our last activity with explore bowhunting the book we just
finished your test you ask week so this is the last activity where you real quick and then we're going to make something you did this last year it's a fun activity we're going to make the vitals and we're gonna shoot through the vitals and decide what organ we've hit based on you know what we see on the arrow
my name is brad callen i teach outdoor education here at locust grove middle school the programs i use in my classroom that are provided by the department wildlife are the hunter education program the national archery in the schools programme explore bill hunting national fishing in the schools programme scholastic shooting sports of
oklahoma program and both fishing in the schools program alright with that can anybody just kind of look at me as i look at the board and tell me what the lungs do okay you're looking at the board kayla what's the lungs do usually be in class each year through the curriculum will educate approximately between 200-250 students
and they receive all of the outdoor education programs at the department wildlife offers today and i'm the outdoor education program we were finishing up to explore bowhunting a workbook and there's an activity in that workbook that teaches the students the anatomy of the white-tailed deer with that we build the lungs we build the
heart will deliver in the stomach so the lungs you need to one gallon ziplock bags now your job is fairly easy going to use those five bottles and you're going to fill this up this is about three-fourths of the way it's about sides along give us to drop slowly little for the lungs will use the lungs have a pink and foamy structure so we'll
use cool whip and food coloring so you have to get on their hands they can just get the taste of cool whip say like that i had this on my pancakes you're gonna have some oatmeal and you also have some walking for the stomach contents the kids kind of grossed out because we put grass and we put coffee grounds and creamed corn
maybe rice water and anything to make it kind of gross and smelly little weird alright cool coffee grounds garba rice cereal oatmeal different colors bright red and and got a dark color the liver with you strawberry jam because it's a dark color for the heart we use it's a brighter red so we use yellow and i don't know what later it is yellow jelly
and we have our stomach we have here never see the heart our hearts should be a lot brighter red in our liver is it ok it is we have our liver we have our heart or lungs so in the body of the gear plus it's kind of like this the liver is gonna be behind it right here right behind the liver is going to
be our stomach we place them inside of the concrete tube in the correct way you'd find one side dear so this is basically our abdominal cavity where that houses our lungs and our liver in our hearts our stomach and so we're going to build this and have a shot opportunity and space are covered up and we're going to see if we can
figure out what we hit based on the color of the arrow and we shoot the deer and we discuss what organ we have you hit based upon the color and the texture of the blood on the arrow based on this what you think we've hit if we hit the stomach you can look at a arrow and you can even smell your arrow it's gonna smell
pretty pretty rank just because of the stomach content i can smell this do you smell anything you say anything bad i don't smell anything bad and i smell smells good like like cool whip actually ok so i'm going to guess we've either hit you know based on this probably the lungs alright because there's not a lot of
blood maybe got a little bit of the liver so let's look inside the tube and let's see what she has hit it should have the body cavity will fill up with blood so do you see you think it's been hid inside there i see some some liver and i see some lung it's been hit ok so the liver has been hit so what
that tell us what should we do maybe you want to wait two hours before we started to trail our deer before the department offered some of these programs i had already been teaching an outdoor education class with their help i've been able to broaden my horizons i had thought of being able to teach inside the classroom with the in
incorporation of the shotguns in the school system the explorer bowhunting the the bow fishing fishing the schools all these things became available just and at my fingertips and i was able to implement them right into my curriculum and really broaden that was able to teach in class just by the department of wildlife incorporating these things into
and educators shoot the bow kinda like this and once you do it's not a little bit right here let's get this good t see i got a t from a front-hand my backhand back elbow in my body is straight up and down here ok you what you want to crunch up and shoot like this okay with your elbow
down i think schools across the state are realizing how to program it is t something that's a lifelong activity for these kids to do in the school system follow through guys follow through that back and paint your face touch that back shoulder get a good follow-through i'm a big proponent of lifelong learning and i think that this is this is a class that
they can learn things that they're going to use for rest of their life stay back here release back shoulder ok i've never shot a bow until this class and i really enjoy it now that i am is a paintbrush paints face got your back shoulder i feel like i'm learning something and i feel like it's a really good thing to
have i recommend it because i think every school in oklahoma wants kids with character wants kids with respect commitment and this program teaches that they didn't have anything like this when i was growing up i so wish they would have had a program like this so that i could have learned all of these resources and so this handful of kids
that has nowhere else to fit in but i had somewhere to fit in and would have learned all these fish and learn where hand all these things start really great program and it's helping kids to learn about our environment build her self-esteem find a place they belong it's just a really really great program for youth now we've got schools jenks
edmond oklahoma city district schools tulsa district schools down to the smallest k through eighth grade school that's doing the programs and kids enjoy it and the school's enjoy offering it so now it doesn't really matter because what size district teachers are professionals and they do a great job of implementing these programs and ensuring
that they're done safely as their school requires and when they see their kids having fun they much rather eat something that their kids enjoy and something that half the class or three-quarters of class doesn't want to participate in what carry provides the best muscle control yes sir the two hand-carry why do you
think that is i start off with the year with hunter education it is a prerequisite to everything that i do here at chandler probably skills my administration talking to me and the school board voted to start this program and i presented them the curriculum that was shown to me by the wildlife department education department and with
that i was able to formulate a curriculum that fit the individual needs of this community when unloading a farm where should you point the muzzle yes ma'am in a safe direction whereas what that's right if it did go off it would teachers and state of oklahoma are busy and so anytime that i don't have to write up a curriculum or write a
test and things this nature saves me a lot of time and i can incorporate it easily into a curriculum like outdoor skills here holding this card is a huge responsibility ok and i'm going to hold it to you guys to be safe at all times meaghan ellis your dad will be happy your mom will and zoey the natural
habitat and our surrounding area we see it declining everyday anything that we can teach our young kids how to boost the environment our native environment our wildlife environment and and you know such things and i always bring up to them you know don't lay that trash in oklahoma what you take into the woods bring out the woods because it has
the vesting effects on our wildlife are fishing or aquatics and-and-and just to teach them that what you do what footprint you put on this earth matters and what you can do to make it a better place for you your future and your kids future and that is what these kids i think need to know more than anything it gives them a venue and it gives them
a an excitement enthusiasm to get outside it's a sport that everybody can do and it's cool because when they see that they can do it it's a sport they can actually do that the light in their eyes it's so exciting make sure you keep your shoulders relax breath before you we all come together as a group and a team and support each
other and i i see an immense value in that the support if there's a camaraderie we're a team or group were like a family if it weren't for oklahoma the department of wildlife we wouldn't exist because they did the training and they provided the grant money and that they set us up we
wouldn't be here if it weren't for them i've had parents come to me in tears thinking me want to cry but i've had parents come to me and thank me because they see their kids just pot some you know it's great it's exciting were the only state that's offering the whole suite of programs that i have listed the six different things that the
teachers can teach at school a lot of other states are doing one or two or three of those they started with the archery program out there and explore bowhunting and explore bowfishing is something that we put together is getting ready to come out with the archery trade association this year actually with a curriculum we've been we created
our own and turned it over to them it's just now getting going we've also provided several states our fishing in schools curriculum that we developed the oklahoma that are starting to do this similar model and a lot of cases if it's working smarter not harder because we provide like i said these schools these curriculum and they they take off and
use them light ok stripes and we have a hybrid in between the two ok out what we okies called perch or actually sunfish ok most common type is we will start off the unit with fish identification learn about the different species of fish and then we will go into different types of equipment rods reels
lures different types of line and then we'll start how we tie our lines how do you rig a line i try to keep it pretty general the cover any type of fishing because he knows where they're going to go trout fishing catfishing crappie fishing it's all different i love teaching the subject and being able to hunt and fish connected me to
the outdoors i want to spread that to my kids i want them to learn to love the outdoors i don't hunt as much as i used to i don't fish as much as i used to but i still have an affinity and a love for the nature and the outdoors that we have and we're blessed with such a diverse outdoor opportunities in
oklahoma and for the kids to miss those opportunities this is a great opportunity for them to get a taste of that and then get to explore it on their own later so we got hooks we got weights i don't have floats i went and bought some more floats for you guys if you need that stuff alright worms got a worm buddy share the
oklahoma department wildlife conservation is a huge contributor to this class their influence is felt everywhere they supplied to the fishing schools program are some of the most of those fishing poles and equipment that we get to take with us today fishing with my father will always be a great memory for me and my grandfather
the summers that i got to spend with my grandparents on lake eufala those are lifelong memories and they still touch my heart fishing with my dad and i hope that when i take these kids fishing that they'll start to develop those fond memories and maybe they can take somebody fishing in that that will pass on and continue to pass on to different
generations but it's it it was just part of growing up for me it was very it was quality time with my parents and my grandparents the biggest goal or objective for providing them with these outdoor curriculums number one educating about who pays for wildlife conservation the north american model its user the hunters and anglers pay for wildlife
conservation not just in oklahoma across the united states either through purchasing their hunting and fishing licenses or purchasing equipment kits are equipment that they use guns ammunition bows arrows whether those kids ever start to hunt or fish it's really up to them the goal the main goal is just to educate our students
about the importance of wildlife conservation the importance role that hunting and fishing play in maintaining our wildlife resources that everybody likes to see and enjoy whether they hunt or fish or not they enjoy seeing different wildlife species out there the secondary goal is is hey we want to give students an opportunity enough of an
opportunity to wear because society has gotten away from the rural environment where a lot of people grew up and those a lot of cases where traditional users hunters anglers is to give those kids that experience and let them decide then if they want to take up the sport of hunting and fishing good good grouping guys seeing some nice
grouping i see your squeeze look at your hand you're squeezing that it's open up a little bit and this won't happen to help the department wildlife has been unreal there are some things that we could do in class but the fun sometimes just aren't there with what they're what
they're doing providing most of this education for free it's been unreal what we can do in class and what they're providing for us every day so it's pretty neat to have all that stuff at your fingertips all the resources that we have available for us as educators to teach these things so it's pretty neat that's part of my life
is putting all this stuff out there for educators to use so we take the two ends fold them over grab the folded part push that through the eye of the hook then we're going to pretend or start to tie knot but don't tighten it leave the loop i would highly encourage every school district in the state to get an outdoor education class for one thing it gives
them another elective to help spread their student body out but especially in urban and suburban areas where kids may not get an opportunity to go outside and experience the outdoors they can at least learn about it so that when they get that opportunity they can we have seen and heard from teachers is you know kids love to do these outdoor activities
we've gotten away from the outdoors as a society but kids want to be in the outdoors they want to get their hands dirty they want to shoot bows they want to catch fish it's just a matter of we've gotta prioritize it and ask them to go and teach them how to do it provided that equipment and getting them interested
and using our model which keeps them interested throughout the entire school year for more information about using any of the department's education curriculum is in your school visit wildlife department . com backslash education hey thanks for joining us today for all of us into wildlife department will see
you right here next time on outdoor oklahoma ok who brought the s'mores nobody nobody oh i think i left them in my stomach