First annual BioBlitz

FINDING BUGS AND WORMS - Joe Riederer, a retired science teacher in central Wisconsin, shows Maple Grove Charter School fourth graders Adriana Gomez and Justin Servi a pill bug that he found underneath a log in the school forest. He also found earth worms in the school forest.

DISCOVERING SPIDERS IN TREES - John Dobyns, an arachonologist who teaches science at St. Norbert College in DePere, shows Maple Grove Charter School fourth grader Avery Kleinschmidt how to use a pooter to blow a spider out of a tree for observation.

STAFF PHOTOS/CASEY KRAUTKRAMER

BUMBLE BEES GALORE - Harold Ehrenreich gives a presentation to Maple Grove Charter School students by the prairie on school property about the 20 species of bumble bees in Wisconsin. He is a member of the Wisconsin Bumble Bee Brigade. Ehrenreich develops prairies, which are a mixture of grasses and herbs or flowers which provide a great habitat for bees, on his land in Birnamwood.

SCHOOL’S FIELD ADVENTURES TEACHER -

Maple Grove Charter School in Hamburg hired Sandy Benton a few years ago as its school adventures teacher as part of the charter school’s large implementation grant that it received from the state. She incorporates the school’s outdoor learning curriculum that it teaches its students. Benton organized the school’s first annual BioBlitz on Friday.

HAMBURG NATIVE FORESTER - Bradley Draxler grew up in Hamburg and attended Kindergarten through fifth grade at Maple Grove Charter School.

He currently works as a forester at Northwest Hardwoods in Dorchester. Draxler identified the various trees in the Maple Grove school forest for students. He said the school forest has sugar maple, bitternut hickory, basswood, ash, butternut, ironwood and elm trees.