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Back in the 1960s, when Philip E. LaMoreaux was State Geologist of Alabama,
he quickly learned the value of communicating with kids. School children were
not only interested in what he had to say about Alabama’s geologic features,
but they also held onto that knowledge, taking those newly acquired facts home
to their parents. Years later, when the West Alabama Chamber of Commerce created
Adopt-A-School, a program that links classrooms to the business and private
sectors in Tuscaloosa County, LaMoreaux’s consulting firm, P.E. LaMoreaux
and Associates (PELA), wanted to be a part of it.
The company has a staff of hydrologists, geologists and engineers who know the
geologic and physiographic detail of the county — each fork of the Black
Warrior River (“Tuscaloosa” means “Black Warrior,” after
a Choctaw chief) and the meandering path of the fall line where the Paleozoic
Appalachian Orogenic Belt subducts under Mesozoic-Tertiary shelf sediments of
the Gulf Coastal Plain. Tuscaloosa was on these falls at the meeting place of
the Choctaw and Cherokee Indians, who were led by Chief Tuscaloosa.
Rock Quarry, a math-science magnet elementary school opened in 1998, and PELA
joined with Merrill Lynch to create an Adopt-A-School partnership. The Chamber
of Commerce’s Adopt-A-School program encourages businesses to become as
involved with their “adopted” school as they wish. The partners are
free to develop their own activities beyond a set of guidelines, utilizing the
skills of their employees to best advantage. For example, PELA provides readers
for classes, presents achievement awards to students and teachers, donates equipment,
serves as resource speakers or tutors, or sponsors geologic field trips.
“We’re at the edge of the Warrior Coal Basin and have about 5,000
gas wells in the area,” LaMoreaux says. “So we might explain to groups
of students about gas wells being drilled or describe how methane gas can be
extracted from coal by drilling a well.”
“Recently, we took a class of third-graders to some fossil locations,”
adds Phil’s son, Jim LaMoreaux, president and chairman of PELA. “We
explained how water has carved out stream valleys in the unconsolidated layers
of sand and clay that are common to this area. After showing the students how
to identify fossils in the rocks, we talked about how those fossils can serve
as marker beds for different geologic formations.” PELA staff members also
tucked some history into their discussions by describing the Indian nations,
primarily the Chocktaw, Cherokee and Chickasaw tribes that once inhabited the
area, and how they used chert for arrowheads, ocher for paint and clay for dishes.
At the close of each nine-week period, PELA presents an award to one student
in each of Rock Quarry’s 32 homerooms. Since theirs is an environmental
consulting firm, they want the award to relate to the physical Earth. Polished
rock slices proved the perfect choice. “We hand out quartz, amethyst, obsidian
arrowheads — things like that — and the kids love them,” Jim
says. The students also receive certificates of merit featuring pictures of
diamonds.
Teachers and staff, too, receive awards at the end of the school year. And throughout
the academic year, PELA supplies teachers with earth-science curriculum materials,
including the “Environmental Awareness Series” and the “Careers
in the Geosciences” video, developed by the American Geological Institute.
A collection box at PELA’s headquarters makes it easy for the staff to
drop in items such as rock specimens that are taken to the school each month.
Other special activities are planned for Earth Science Week in October and for
Groundhog Day in February, when several students are chosen to “shadow”
PELA employees throughout a workday.
Andrea Melnick, a fourth-grade teacher at Tuscaloosa Academy, had heard of PELA’s
work from a colleague at Rock Quarry Elementary School. In 2001, Melnick received
a grant to set up a weather-monitoring station for her students, contingent
upon receiving matching funds from another source. She approached Jim LaMoreaux
about the project, and PELA agreed to provide the funds she needed. A rain gauge,
water-level gauge, temperature gauge, and other equipment were installed at
the academy last fall. Jim was on hand to show the students how to take measurements.
“This is standard commercial equipment, the same that we use,” Phil
explains. “The children are not only taught how to record data, but also
why this monitoring is necessary for farmers and others in the area.”
After measurements are taken, the youngsters post their findings on the Internet
through GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment),
an international program that allows students to study real-time geophysical
and atmospheric data from all over the world. The project has been so successful
that Melnick intends to apply for another grant. PELA may also provide the academy
with poster-sized graphics that explain how the weather station relates to the
environment.
In Tuscaloosa County, more than 70 companies interact with local schools through
programs such as Adopt-a-School. Phil LaMoreaux sees the difference it is making
in the lives of the youngsters, their teachers, and parents as well as the PELA
employees.
“Our investment in our children’s education and their schools is an
investment in our community’s future and the future of our company,”
he says. “There must be thousands of consulting businesses in the United
States,” he adds. “Think of the impact they could make if they become
involved with their schools.”
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