There is a fine mist in the air, not rain but a light dusting of dampness. And the sky remains a pale yellow color, without the threat of dark clouds or lightning.

Emily Kurtz, a teacher at the Macbride Nature Recreation Area who holds a master’s degree from The University of Iowa in science education, leads a group of about a dozen 10- and 11-year-olds on a narrow path through tall prairie grasses. She stops to point at a plant with spade-shaped leaves.

"This is poison ivy," she announces, and the children gather in closely to examine it. "Who knows what poison ivy does?"

Hands shoot up and everyone agrees: poison ivy makes you itch. Kurtz nods and describes how each exposure makes a person more allergic.

"But who knows the good things about poison ivy?" she asks.

The children are silent; their hands remain at their sides. Kurtz goes on to explain that poison ivy is a "guardian" of the wilderness, that it grows along the perimeter where people have disturbed nature, and that of the entire animal kingdom, only human beings are affected by it. Some creatures even eat its leaves in the fall, so once it is finished protecting the land, poison ivy provides sustenance for its natural inhabitants.

As she speaks, the children stoop down to get another look and scribble a few notes. They are wearing hooded rain slickers, carrying journals, pencils, and brightly colored hula hoops. A few hundred yards farther up the path, they will throw the hoops into a flat expanse of waving grasses, then they’ll record everything they observe inside the circle: insects, animal droppings, flowers, and weeds.

This is prairie day at School of the Wild in the Macbride Nature Recreation Area, a tract of land leased from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that is managed and maintained by the University. Thanks to staff from the College of Education, and environmental grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state, 17 Iowa schools have the opportunity to participate in this program each year. Today, it is the fifth-grade class from Coralville Central Elementary School.

Before the week is out, the students will learn survival skills, find edible plants, and make shelters from fallen branches and logs. With the help of licensed experts, they will hold and band birds with identification tags and then track their migration. They also will catch a foot-and-a-half long bullfrog in Spider Pond, name him Big Dave (after School of the Wild coordinator Dave Conrads), and kiss him several times before letting him go. Fifth-grade teacher Dan Mascal is here with them, and he says this is one of the most important units he will teach all year.

"Iowa is one of the most physically altered states in the United States," Mascal says. "We’ve lost 99 percent of our native prairies and more than 80 percent of our wetlands. School of the Wild offers kids an awareness and appreciation of our natural environment."

That’s why Macbride area directors are working on plans for the construction of a residential learning center on site. Their goal is to make the University’s environmental education programs available to schoolchildren throughout the state. Conrads, who helped found School of the Wild as well as the University’s summer Wildlife Camps, says environmental programs like these help students gain confidence and apply their skills to other curricula, such as social studies, science, and history.

"You actually get experience doing something like this," says Jesse Searls, 11. "You get to see the stuff live instead of looking in a book and seeing a picture. That’s how School of the Wild is different from what we do in class."