CASEE: 20 and growing strong (with video)

o What: 20th anniversary of the Center for Agriculture, Science and Environmental Education.

o When: 5 to 7:30 p.m. today.

o Where: CASEE, 11104 N.E. 149th St., Brush Prairie.

o Cost: Free, public event.

o Information: 360-885-5361.

o On the Web: http://casee.battlegroundps.org.

They hope to become foresters, conservationists, marine biologists and oceanographers. Once a week, these future scientists leave their classroom at the Center for Agriculture, Science and Environmental Education and head outside for a hands-on science lesson.

On a rainy Tuesday afternoon, CASEE students in Rod Hallman’s class brandished pruners, loppers, rakes and heavy-duty gloves to prune trees and attack blackberry brambles in the arboretum on 80 acres at CASEE. Their outdoor lesson also provided an opportunity for students to spruce up the grounds for CASEE’s 20th anniversary celebration this evening.

“It’s a cool place to go to school,” Hallman said, then stopped to instruct students how to prune a tree with branches growing too close to the ground.

“See this big tree here? See how high up its branches start?” Hallman asked. “That’s where we want this tree’s branches to be.”

The students with pruners nodded and began cutting the low-hanging branches.

Beyond cows, plows

In September 1993, CASEE opened with 40 students and two instructors. Today, 138 CASEE students experience hands-on science and experimental science as they’re instructed by Hallman and fellow Battle Ground teachers Richard Hogg, Irene Catlin and Chris Collmer.

In 1984-85, when Battle Ground High School revised its agriculture curriculum, teachers Tim Hicks and Mark Watrin envisioned students no longer studying traditional agriculture of cows and plows, but instead studying science and environmental science.

These days, students from Battle Ground High School and Prairie High School each weekday attend classes at their home school for half a day and the other half at CASEE to study biology, natural resources, horticulture, food science, chemistry, biology and English.