OUR VISION
Our aim is that the students who participate in the MTE Earth Day 2021 event come away remembering the importance of sustainable forestry to their lives and have a basic idea of what goes into managing such a forest.
Menominee Tribal Enterprises
Our primary stakeholder is Menominee Triable Enterprises. Since 1908, MTE has been providing Wisconsin and the world with high-quality lumber from their sustainably managed forest. Partnering with them, we have taken on the task of preparing the classroom education element of their Earth Day 2021 event. This event will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and looking with hope to the future of our planet.
THE PROBLEM WE SOLVE
Special events in in grade school can be fun, but students often come away without retaining any of the information shared with them. We want to make the event an effective vehicle by which students in grades 2-5 can learn about what goes into maintaining a sustainable forest. One of the best ways of learning is doing, so we have created a game based on the basic principles outlined by MTE's Forest Management Plan. In our game, students take control of their own virtual forest and are scored based on how well they manage it.
OPPORTUNITIES AND GOALS
Working with MTE has allowed us to gain the critical information that we need to complete our project. For example, without their Forest Management Plan as a baseline, we would not have been able to make the clear and reality-based objectives that our game is based on.
Our biggest remaining goal is the creation of a short education presentation in addition to our game. This presentation will go over in more specific detail the principles and importance of sustainable forestry in order to complement our game.
