Statewide connections were made for monthly double sessions to 17 communities or school districts including two correctional facilities, Ethan Allan and Lincoln Hills, which house incarcerated youth. Horicon NWR is the first content provider to connect to these troubled youth.

The 15 other sites included Rosendale-Brandon, Kenosha, Markesan, Herman, Phelps, Gilmanton, Butternut, Bangor, Stanley-Boyd, Weyerhauser, Mercer, Southern Oaks, McKinley, Tomahawk, and Mellen. Many of these locations are remote and rural with little or no access to the Refuge System or the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Several local school sites hosted and broadcast the sessions to a maximum of four receiving sites simultaneously per session via satelite technology available to all Wisconsin BadgerNet sites. Ranger Stoddard presented topics including Horicon NWR, spooky marsh tales and tails, marsh animals, wildlife trade, wildlife careers, the Refuge System, Canada geese, and bird identification. She coordinated for one guest presenter, Barbara Harvey, a local raptor rehabilitor who showcased several of her education birds and inspired students to care about their 24-hour per day rodent control services.

Students colored marsh maps in a geography lesson, listened to true and historic marsh surival tales, became nature detectives solving wildlife mysteries using animal sign clues, narrated a slide show, handled illegal wildlife trade products, dressed up as a wildland firefighter and practiced using a fire shelter, searched for Refuges on the visitor guide map, honked on goose calls, handled bird study skins, and much more.

Teachers received lesson plans in advance via email and prepared for various dates by visiting the Refuge web site, reading stories, or creating wildlife collages.

This is the second year Horicon NWR has partnered with CESA 6 to provide distance education programming. In the first year, over 700 students and teachers participated for a total of almost 2,000 people in two years. CESA 6's distance education coordinator, Patrice Vossekuil, has been instrumental in making the partnership possible.

These distance education classes are important because they create opportunities for multiple, high-tech contacts with teachers and students. They do not replace the on-site field trip experience but can help prep or extend field trips. Also, classroom visits can be consolidated and scheduled more efficiently. With statewide connections, distance ed classes reach schools located geographically too far away for an on-site visit.