Area students learn about the many uses of trees

By CHARITY SMITH

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Bessemer — Fourth grade students at Washington Elementary School were treated to a presentation on the importance, and many uses of trees Friday morning. The presentation was given by Doug Foley, a retired fourth grade teacher from Ironwood and co-owner of 906 Tree Service LLC.

“It gives us a really good idea that the trees that surround us are really here to give us more than just cutting them down and getting firewood from them,” said Jill Carver, fourth grade teacher at Washington. “I mean, it gives us homes for wildlife. It gives us fresh oxygen for all living things. Even things like guitars are made out of them.”

Foley taught the students about the many different things about trees including what a tree service does, the different types of trees and their many uses. Foley also, brought his guitar and taught the kids a song he wrote which describes the process of photosynthesis.

“I taught for 25 years in education (at Ironwood). I love kids. I love trees,” Foley said. “I started playing the guitar seven years ago because I wanted to make up stupid, silly songs for kids. I wrote that photosynthesis song years ago because it’s one of the questions on our MEAP (Michigan Educational Assessment Program) Test.”

He said the song was a way to get the kids to remember the process of photosynthesis. It’s a great technique, Foley said. It helps that to stick in you head, he said. One of the fourth graders, Veronica Pavlovich, even chased Foley out of the classroom to let him know that she still remembered the song and really liked it.

“My daughter is 14 and in eighth grade at Ironwood, goes ‘I still remember that stupid song,’” Foley told the Daily Globe.

Foley said that he and his businesses partner — Tom Mott, a third grade teacher at Ironwood — had wanted to hand out trees on Sept. 6 but that would not work out well for tree planting.

“The problem is it doesn’t work out for spring tree planting — you don’t want to be planting trees in September,” said Foley.

Instead, they came up with the idea to do presentations at local schools in the spring for Earth Week and hand out red pine tree saplings. Each student is given a tree to take home and plant. The children are asked to take a photo of the tree on Sept. ,6 aka 906 day.

Every child who submits a photo of their tree will be entered into a drawing for a $50 Amazon gift card and a T-shirt. Entries can be submitted to [email protected].

The students told the Daily Globe how much they enjoyed learning about all the different things that are made from trees.

“I learned that different things are made from trees — money, toilet paper, firewood,” said Ethyn Salmi, 10.

“I liked learning what a guitar is made of. What kind of wood it’s made of,” Sophia Jacobson, 9.

Jacobson said that it is made from rosewood and another kind of wood from Pakistan.

Elise Nurmela, 9, said she learned that there is corkwood inside of a baseball.

The presentation helps to prepare the kids for the MSTEP testing done in fifth grade. Carver said that she usually takes her students to the Ottawa National Forest nursery, but has not been able to do so the last couple years because of the pandemic.

“When he offered to come in and do this I jumped on it. It would definitely fill the void for our visiting our tree nursery. He’s bringing the nursery to us,” she said

Carver said that the trees are a “big chunk” of the Michigan history portion of the MSTEP. She said it is hard to find stuff on Michigan history and they really have to “hit” the subject hard in the spring so that the information stays with the kids throughout the summer and into the Fall when they take the test.

Foley presented to fourth graders at Bessemer and Hurley schools on Friday and will bring his presentation to Wakefield and Ironwood on Monday. He said he chose fourth graders because it is an age group he can relate to as that was the last grade he taught.