Staff report

Nineteen teachers from Suffolk, Franklin, Southampton, and Isle of Wight chose to spend three action-packed weeks this summer attending the Educators’ Environmental Institute (EEI) held at Paul D. Camp Community College June 27-July 15.

The purpose of the Institute, according to instructor John Patterson, assistant professor of biology at PDCCC, is to examine the interrelationships between man and his resources. By experiencing the following activities: the making of paper, adopting a tree, digging for fossils, and visiting a water treatment facility, pine forest, swamp, marsh and beach area, teachers were given the opportunity to study man’s effect on local natural environmental systems.

&uot;The Institute also provides the opportunity for teachers to take a six-hour undergraduate science class that should fulfill their teacher recertification needs, with the approval of the school’s superintendent,&uot; said Patterson, who has been teaching the class for the last 10 years.

In addition, the Suffolk/Nan-semond Chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America (IWLA), a national wildlife organization, donated $200 to be divided among the six Suffolk teachers attending the Institute to purchase environmental curriculum material for their individual classrooms.

The six participants in this year’s Institute from Suffolk, who received funds from IWLA, include Janet Brinkley of Nansemond Parkway; Carol Johnson of Kilby Shores; Rob Kelly of King’s Fork Elementary; Larry Gamble from Forest Glen; Charles Hunter and Sammy Hargrove from John F. Kennedy.

On the final day of class, Darren Stauffer, president of IWLA and Will Hass, an IWLA board member, were on hand to listen to the final presentations.

&uot;You are teaching at the grass roots level and we are depending on you to teach our children to be stewards of the environment,&uot; Stauffer told the teachers.

For information on next year’s event, call Patterson at 925-6338.