Today after school, Chadron High Students participated in the 2nd Annual Big Buck Contest. This 'contest' is actually an event held to teach students different scoring elements of deer antlers. Any student is welcome to participate by bringing 'cleaned' antlers from deer, typically from last fall's hunting season. Nebraska Game and Parks Wildlife Biologists, Steve Masek and Nick Dobesh, showed students how to properly measure antlers of deer for scoring for Boone & Crockett (rifle season) or Pope & Young (archery season). Students are also taught the differences in scoring between white tail and mule deer breeds as well as the differences in typical and non-typical scoring. Further, our local wildlife biologists share insights to aging a deer by inspecting the teeth of the deer.
This event involves a lot of measuring using scoring sheets and provides an opportunity for students to learn more about topics in wildlife sciences as well as the mathematical elements involved in measuring and working with fractions.
This event was first created last year through discussions with several Chadron Public School teachers: Jon Cogdill, Clete Budler, Jerry Mack, CJ Bach, and Eric Calkins. In our area of the state, many students (and teachers) have an interest in hunting. Connecting educational content with this interest helps open our classroom subjects to the outside world.
A special thanks to the Nebraska Game and Parks for their time and support of this program.
This event was first created last year through discussions with several Chadron Public School teachers: Jon Cogdill, Clete Budler, Jerry Mack, CJ Bach, and Eric Calkins. In our area of the state, many students (and teachers) have an interest in hunting. Connecting educational content with this interest helps open our classroom subjects to the outside world.