Teachers receive extra credit for outdoor effort

LITTLE ROCK — Hailey Robinson loves her job.

“I’ve been teaching 10 years in public education,” Robinson said. “My mother is (Lincoln Consolidated School District Superintendent) Dr. Mary Ann Spears. My great-grandmother was a chemistry teacher. My grandmother was a special education teacher. I’m kind of built for this, I guess.”

Robinson, who teaches biology and outdoor education at Lincoln High School (Washington County), received the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s 2023 Conservation Educator of the Year award at the agency’s February meeting. It was one of three awards presented by the AGFC’s Education Division. The Batesville School District was named Conservation Education District of the Year and the North Little Rock School District received the Education Project of the Year award.

“These (awards) are not just for brick-and-mortar K-12 establishments,” JJ Gladden, an assistant chief in the AGFC Education Division, said. “These are for nongovernment organizations, these are for other state agencies, these are for anybody that stands beside us and extends our reach to the good citizens of Arkansas and our youth.

“The Batesville School District stands out as one of the few districts fully engaged in all AGFC school-based programs. The commitment and dedication from teachers and coaches has been instrumental in implementing Archery in the Schools, Youth Shooting Sports, Project WILD, Outdoor Adventures, Fishing in The Natural State, hunter education and boater education.”

Dr. Michael Hester, Batesville School District superintendent, and a contingent from the district accepted the award.

Dr. Greg Pilewski, North Little Rock School District superintendent, and Mary Beth Hatch, the district’s coordinator of school innovation, received the other award.

“Their vision for creating an engaging learning environment that bridges classroom knowledge with real-world conservation applications district-wide was a monumental project,” Gladden said. “The initial phases of the project involved intensive professional development for teachers, led by AGFC educators, empowering them with the necessary tools and skills to independently teach these concepts.”

The plan to bring outdoor education to North Little Rock students from elementary ages through high school began with professional development for teachers, led by AGFC educators, in 2022. By the 2023 spring semester, students were experiencing everything from fish dissection, to fielding archery teams, to working as part of a stream habitat team with guidance from AGFC experts.

Robinson’s efforts to bring the outdoors to her Lincoln High School students through archery, fishing, rock climbing and other pursuits started with a chance encounter.

“I got into Trout Unlimited five years ago,” Robinson said. “I was going through something in my life and I ran into this guy, Brian Kick, and he talked me into taking on Trout in the Classroom.”

Kick is a fishing guide and former president of TU Chapter 514 based in Fayetteville (Robinson is the current president). Trout in the Classroom is a TU program that places aquariums with teachers.

“So I started just with a trout tank in my classroom,” Robinson continued. “Today I run Trout in the Classroom for northwest Arkansas and we have seven schools and eight on a waiting list.”

That would be plenty to handle for many teachers, but Robinson, who holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Arkansas and a master’s in educational leadership from Arkansas State University, was just beginning.

“Last year we started our first trout camp,” she said. “My goal is to make public education and conservation education, specifically, free to kids. Public education is deep in my blood and it’s incredibly important to me to make sure that kids have the opportunity and don’t have to pay for it.”

Looks like she met that goal, again, thanks to a bit of chance. She and her husband, Aaron, who’s also a TU member, went to the group’s national meeting in Maine two years ago and visited a TU trout camp. Robinson was impressed, yet perplexed.

“They charge (for the camp) and that just sort of bothered me,” Robinson said. “So I figured out a way to make it free. JJ assisted me with that.”

Some of the money raised at TU 514’s annual banquet is used to help pay for the trout camp, held in June and open to youngsters ages 13-17. Some people donate directly to the camp or sponsor a camper. Everyone who works on the camp is a volunteer.

“We teach kids how to fly-fish, they get a free fly rod,” Robinson said. “It’s just been an incredible experience. This is the second year we’re offering trout camp to 14 kids, completely free, five days, overnight, at Riverview Resort. Jordan Bevil (an AGFC regional coordinator) has been huge, coming not just to my classes, but also to my trout camp.

“We’re also offering two scholarships to students who are going into the conservation field. They write us a little essay, tell us what they want to do that involves conservation.”

Then there’s the Lincoln High School archery team Robinson has coached for two years. Lincoln fielded teams before but never had a high school squad, which reached the state championship round last March.

“I started the program with nothing,” Robinson said. “The Arkansas National Guard donated bows to our team so we’d have enough to shoot at state.”

Robinson’s students also are involved in events with the Beaver Watershed Alliance and Illinois River Watershed Partnership. As an educational partner and board member of Northwest Arkansas Fish Habitat Alliance, Robinson built fish habitats with her students, a process that was recorded for a video. The habitats were placed in Lincoln Lake, a couple of miles north of Lincoln.

“The idea is to connect kids to their hometown, to their home lakes, wherever that might be,” Robinson said. “Lincoln Lake is pretty incredible. We rock climb there as well; that’s part of my outdoor education curriculum.

“We’re getting kids outside and we’re doing stuff that they’re going to remember forever. They’re not going to remember what they did in geometry class, probably not going to remember what they did in my biology class, but they’re going to remember rock climbing with Mrs. Robinson. They’re going to remember the eight-mile canoe float down the Elk River.”

These activities sound like fun but Robinson has overcome some challenging hurdles.

“We’re making a difference and Arkansas Game and Fish has been huge with that,” she said. “Every year I apply for a grant to help pay for some of this stuff because my school is 80 percent free/reduced lunch. I have a student on my fishing team who is homeless; I have a student who can’t afford anything. I have found a way to pay for absolutely all of his gear. I drive him to every single tournament even if we have to leave at 2 a.m. My husband has been a huge help with that.”

At the AGFC awards ceremony, Gladden announced that Robinson and TU 514 were selected to receive a $10,000 George H.W. Bush Vamos A Pescar (Let’s Go Fishing) Education Fund grant from the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation. The money will be spent on outdoor outreach to northwest Arkansas’s Hispanic families.

Robinson also recently received the 2024 Joe Hogan Award from the Arkansas Chapter of the American Fisheries Society. The award, named for the AGFC’s first chief of fisheries, recognizes a strong commitment to fisheries and aquatic resources.

Although she has made amazing strides with her students, Robinson pointed out that Lincoln High School Principal Stan Karber has backed her since the beginning.

“He’s highly motivated to get kids outside and to create opportunity,” Robinson said. “He says yes to everything I ever ask him to do and he’s the reason we have these programs.”

Archery team coach, Trout in the Classroom sponsor, TU chapter president, trout camp manager, fishing team coach and, lest we forget, Robinson also coaches a chess team. She laughs at the absurd number of irons she has in the fire but realizes that Lincoln is a small, rural school with 65-95 graduates per year. Anything other than basic education requires an army of volunteers.

“Small schools,” she said with a laugh. “If you don’t do it all, no one will.”

Visit www.agfc.com/education to learn how to incorporate nature-based education in your elementary, middle or high school.

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CUTLINES:

GROUP ON BANK
Robinson’s first fishing team on the shore of Beaver Lake in fall 2022 after their first bass tournament. Photo courtesy of Hailey Robinson.

FISHING
Students in Robinson’s class participate in a “catch, clean and cook” field trip at Roaring River in Missouri in 2022. Photo courtesy of Hailey Robinson.

ARCHERY
Students participating in archery classes at the J.B. and Johnelle Hunt Family Ozark Highlands Nature Center in Springdale. Photo courtesy of Hailey Robinson.

FLY TYING
Students in Hailey Robinson’s class learned the subtle art of tying fishing flies thanks to one of Robinson’s Gofundme efforts. Photo courtesy of Hailey Robinson.