Concerned about the environment? Interested in ecology? In Forestry and Environmental Studies, students learn about the scientific identification of trees and plants, as well as landscaping design, construction, and maintenance. Students are prepared to further their education in fields like Environmental Science, Ecology, Turf Management, Arboriculture, Landscape Construction, or Nursery Management. The program is taught using problem-based learning with an emphasis on authentic, hands-on projects in the community. Completion of these projects requires the use of skills and knowledge gained in the classroom such as plant identification, landscape construction practices, arboriculture practices, turfgrass science, and plant health care.

Classes are taught outdoors as much as possible and educational field trips are added to create dynamics in learning. Some of the traveling a student may experience is (but is not limited to), traveling to other schools to work with science classes, going to City, County, and State Parks, participating in invasive plant identification and eradication, and helping to replace plant species with native material. Classes are also visiting forests and lumber mills, working on golf courses, visiting large and small landscape design and building firms, attending turfgrass commercial equipment sales events, developing relations in business by visiting plant propagation and greenhouse facilities, investigating tree care and landscape maintenance businesses, visiting plant pathology labs, looking at mechanical engineering and agricultural repair shops, making occasional trips to farms that produce fruits, vegetables, Christmas trees, row crops, and nursery production.

When class cannot be held outdoors, indoor instruction is geared toward personal communication and marketing skills, plant fertility, soil science, plant identification, and hand/power tool usage and repair.

In the first year of the program, students are encouraged to acquire a driver's license. This leads to allowing students to better participate in summer employment in the field and involvement in an internship in a position related to the Green Industry during the second year.

Alumni of the program have gone on to have successful traditional Green Industry careers such as designing and managing golf courses, becoming entrepreneurs in landscape construction companies, turf grass and athletic field installation and maintenance, plant health care technicians, US Forest Service employees, Parks and Recreation managers, tree care, and even running plant pathology labs.

Other students have successfully taken other nontraditional destinations after graduation such as investment bankers, ski area managers, medical doctors, and business owners to name a few. These students have all suggested that Forestry and Environmental Studies class created the foundation in their lives for working as a team, understanding how to think and memorize, developing personal communication skills, time management, creative expression, and problem-solving in difficult situations.

If you are interested in working outside with plants and turf, this program may be for you. If you complete the Forestry and Environmental Studies program, you could be employed in various careers in the “Green” industry. You will have an opportunity to study firsthand, given a work-based experience, between three and five major fields of study during the first year of the program. In the second year, you will concentrate on one area, attending class for approximately 50 minutes a day and working three to four hours a day in your area of interest.

GRADE LEVEL: 10, 11, 12

SCHOOL: Kent

PROGRAM LENGTH: Two years

CREDIT AT KENT:

Level I – Comp or CP English (1cr); IA Plant & Hort Sc (1cr); IB Urban Forestry (1cr); Environmental Science (Icr)

Level II – CP English (1cr); IIA Landscape Design (1cr); IIB Turf Sc. & Mgt (1cr); Environmental Science II (1cr); Optional- F&LM Capstone II (1cr)

• Two years

• One period (50 minutes) of Technical Theory

• Three periods (170 minutes) of work-based experience

• Working indoors and/or outdoors

• Plant identification and selection

• Landscape maintenance, construction and design

• Environmental ecologyArboriculture (Tree Management)

• Turf management

• Equipment maintenance, operation and safety

• Garden center and nursery operations

• Greenhouse operations

• Two year college Associate Degree

• Four year Baccalaureate Degree

• School-to-work employment transitions

• Industry internships

• Reading and math skills

• Problem solving skills

• Interest in creative design

• Interest in biological sciences and the environment

• Communicate orally and in writing

• Good interpersonal relationships

• Good personal appearance and hygiene

• Positive work attitude

• Good organizational skills

• Consistent attendance

Kyle Kutinsky
kkutinsky@kentschools.netEmail Kyle