by Eric Hagen
Staff Writer
A black bear mother named Lily and her cubs have touched the hearts of people all over the world ever since a researcher in Ely set up a webcam at the bear den in January 2010.
Rhonda Hennis (left), a preschool teacher in Wilmington, N.C. , and Andover Elementary School teacher Dana Coleman (right) have become friends because of their interest in teaching their students about the black bear mother, Lily, and her cubs. A strongly worded letter that Coleman sent to state government officials impressed Hennis so much that she recently made a trip to Minnesota to visit her classroom, and she donated $300 worth of material to further their education. Photo by Eric Hagen
The mutual goals of educating young students and protecting these animals from hunters has now formed a friendship between two teachers from very different parts of the country.
One teacher, Rhonda Hennis, provided $300 worth of material to supplement what they have learned and give them more information. She recently traveled to the Twin Cities to see the passion of Dana Coleman’s students learning about the bears and to visit the State Capitol to add a voice in the fight against the allowed hunting of these bears.
Coleman and Hennis said they probably would have befriended each other had they worked at the same school, but Coleman works at Andover Elementary School and Hennis is a preschool teacher in North Carolina.
The only reason they met is because of the black bears.
“Here sits this teacher who I’m telling you if I lived in this town or taught at this school would have been lifelong friends,” Hennis said of Coleman. “And we’re just finding each other. And we will be lifelong friends from now on and that all happened over her willingness to follow the passion of her children.”
Every day, Coleman’s class watches Lily and her cubs on the webcam and reads facts about bears. But they are doing so much more than watching videos. These first-graders are developing an interest in reading every time they read about what the bears are up to. Coleman infuses a lot of math and science into the lesson plans as well.
Hennis said when young students learn curriculum through something they are passionate about rather than a textbook, that is very powerful learning. Coleman believes her students will better remember her lesson plans.
“The sad thing is you can read out of that book and when they are seniors in high school or in college, they’re never going to remember one thing that you taught. But they will never forget this,” Coleman said.
When bear cub Jason died April 12 from an unknown cause, Coleman told the students that Jason could have just as easily been killed by a pack of wolves. The students were aghast at this thought, but Coleman reminded them that wolf cubs needed food as well and this was the circle of life.
The students and their parents have become so involved with watching the bears that Coleman was concerned what would happen if a hunter shot a bear during hunting season.
When Coleman learned that Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Commissioner Tom Landwehr would not prohibit hunters from shooting Lily, Hope, Faith and Jason, she wrote a letter to Landwehr, Gov. Mark Dayton and other state legislators to voice her displeasure.
The letter eventually made it to Dr. Lynn Rogers, the lead researcher at the Wildlife Research Institute in Ely. One of the many people who read this letter was Hennis.
“I just felt like she had an understanding of how learning about the bears could be incorporated about the curriculum,” Hennis said. “Her passion for protecting these bears also came across in that letter.”
Hennis had a similar strong interest in protecting the black bears because like Coleman’s class, she found it hard to not become attached. Hennis was one of about a dozen teachers across the country who assisted the North American Bear Center in Ely in coming up with items for a traveling bear educational kit that could be loaned to different schools every two weeks for $150.
Hennis paid for Coleman’s class to have the bear box for two weeks. Material inside the box includes a portion of a black bear hide, scat, molding of black bear tracks, PowerPoint presentations, DVDs, games, posters and much more. Hennis spent another $150 to buy more books and stuffed animals from the Bear Center for Andover Elementary. These purchases help fund the research of the bears.
On a trip to England and Ireland, Hennis met other people who are fans of these bears. So when she stopped by the State Capitol last week to meet with an assistant to the governor, she conveyed that the DNR’s stance impacts more than the people of Minnesota.
“It’s a global community of people,” she said.
Eric Hagen is at eric.hagen@ecm-inc.com
Rhonda Hennis and Dana Coleman have it RIGHT!! The children of today are our future leaders, biologists, physicians, wild life photographers….. For them to learn about nature from the up close and personal view of the North American Black Bear and all wildlife is a true gift to all of us. To be able to learn the true facts by watching and learning form the bears themselves is the only way to rid the world of the misconceptions and untruths about black bears. As for the protection of these bears, it is very important! To ask for the protection of a maximum of 25 research bears in one area of study is not too much to ask. It is imperative to the future of all wild animals as well as to the future of mankind.
Just two of 500 or more teachers who have learned their lessons well! Spark a child’s interest through visual, tactile and printed forms of learning — add, in this case, some kinda scary – kinda cuddly animals, and the entire classroom comes alive. I applaud their creativeness and devotion to helping youngsters learn. By carrying the bears across the curriculum, connections between science, math, geography become evident.
Kudos to both Rhonda and Dana for their education of Lily, Hope and Faith’s youngest fans. It is wonderful that two of Lily’s fans have met and united to teach the children about the circle of life when Jason, the cub died, and to dispel the myths about the American Black Bear. Without these bears these two great teachers probably would never have met and it took the love of animals to do it!! I wish I would have had teachers like these when I was a child!! Thanks to Rhonda for her contribution to Dana’s classroom and to Dana for assisting her class to initiate the petition to make Minnesota’s State Mammal the black bear—such a great way to honor these great and gentle creatures of God. I am happy to see that the Educational Outreach Program of the North American Bear Center in Ely, MN is making an impact in the classroom. I am grateful that Rhonda made the effort to meet with legislators to support the utmost need for protection of the radio-collared research bears in the study area around Ely, in St. Louis county.
I think Rhonda and Dana are an inspiration to all humans and this should generate an out pouring of interest for other humans to take up the fight for a new legislation to protect collared bears everywhere. This would also be an opportune time for hunters as well, to convey their interest in preserving one of our most natural and wonderful resources. By adding their voices to the cause, their impact would make a definitive difference in the decisions being made in government to aid the research being done by the NABC. Dana and Rhonda are setting the standard for all of us who would like to do more, so lets not allow ourselves to be fence sitters any longer. To Dana and Rhonda, I tip my hat in your direction.