Beekeeper Brandon Fehrencamp came to Small to share his experience and expertise with Mr. Brooks' Independent Study class.

Students learned all about beekeeping and got to take home a souvenir chunk of honey comb.

Kathy Zarsky visited Mr. Brooks' Nature Tech class to introduce the concept of "Biomimicry."

Students participated in an interactive exercise to discover the many strategies nature uses to "protect," "stick together," "move," "store water," "withstand wind" and reduce erosion.  Students will be using nature's examples to create a Problem Based Learning Project.

Mr. Brooks' Nature Tech Class visits TDS Exotic Wildlife Ranch and Landfill

The Wildlife Ranch won't be open to the public until next year, but we got a chance to see the great things Texas Disposal Systems is doing at its Southeast facility.

Land that was once landfill is becoming a preserve for exotic animal species like "Rowdy" the Recycling Rhino.

This facility is ranked number 1 in the country in efficiency.  We expected to see garbage everywhere, but only one section of the site contained open garbage.

Students got to see the sorting process at the Materials Recycling Center.  TDS' goal is to reduce, reuse and repurpose as much of the "trash" as possible.  It has a store where the public is welcome to buy a variety of items at rock-bottom prices and a mulch, compost and soil center.