Environmental Education: Grade Level Overview
Each spring, students visit the Chesapeake Bay shoreline and observe a variety of plants and animals during their first environmental field experience. In their comparative study of the bays blue crab and fish, students learn about offspring and how they are similar or different from their parents.
Kindergarten
Students spend a day investigating a variety of different places where animals and plants live at The Elms Environmental Center. The shoreline is the site for a study about mollusks. Collecting and grouping shells helps students to begin to understand the important role of oysters in the health of the Chesapeake Bay. They work with sand as they build sand castles and learn about the changing shorelines. Completing the day, students visit the field and woodland areas, habitats that provide basic needs for plants and animals. A bird walk, looking for hidden birds in the trees, provides information on animal survival such as the use of camouflage.
First Grade
Early spring, students visit the environmental center for a study about weather and its affect on the various animal groups. Collecting daily temperatures and comparing weather changes from month to month is enriched with a thermometer hunt on the grounds. The frog pond provides a field site to study animals and their offspring especially during the spring months. An interpretive nature walk introduces students to the woodland, field, wetland and shoreline habitats found at The Elms Center. On this walk students learn about the ways animals depend on plants and on each other.
Second Grade
The gardens of
Sotterley provide the study
site for students to learn about the life
cycles of plants and animals focusing on the relationship of the monarch
butterfly and its host plant, the milkweed. Native and non-native
plants and the disappearance of some organisms and species, naturally or
caused by man, will be the environmental issue for the students. The
wonderful old trees on the grounds are used for a lesson on natural
resources and how they are used to meet human needs. Aging the
trees, students become aware of our Southern Maryland historic timeline.
This program is co-sponsored by the St. Mary’s County Garden Club.
Third Grade
Concentrating on the animals and plants in the wetland habitats students study the life cycle of the spotted salamanders and visit the ephemeral pools looking for the salamander eggs. The tremendous loss of so much of our wetlands and the relationships between the horseshoe crab and the shorebirds are the focus for environmental issues that need to be understood. Students will use magnifying instruments to study the brine shrimp and also microscopic specimens found at the ephemeral pools. Students will also use binoculars to identify and count birds and waterfowl found at The Elms. Part of the day will be spent on a new lesson, “Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.”
Fourth Grade
The fourth grade program
is held each fall
at
The Elms. This year, a second day during January will offer a
weather exercise. Fourth grade students may also participate in a
two-day residential program. Students observe and classify animals and
plants found in the Chesapeake Bay and put together the food chain from
the estuary. Environmental issues, such as the unloading of ballast
water in the Chesapeake Bay and the introduction of non-native species
into the system, are introduced as part of the problem solving exercise.
During the winter program students work with weather instruments, collect
and compare daily temperatures, determine wind speed and record daily
precipitation.
Fifth Grade
In this program, students are introduced to basic canoeing skills and water safety practices. The lessons focus on natural resources and human needs; how they contributed to the settlement of the region and shaped the social and economic activity in the 1700’s and how renewable and nonrenewable resources of the estuaries are used by humans to meet basic needs. Students explore Sotterley Cove and the colonial port site during their canoeing lesson.
Seventh Grade
The Piney Point
Aquaculture Center and the skipjack,
The Dee of St. Mary’s, from the Chesapeake Bay Field Lab are the
classrooms for the students in this fall field study. As part of
their service learning program students have made oyster bags to help
rebuild oyster reefs, counted spat and built oyster floats. This
year, students are looking at current environmental issues, participating
in the SAV program, observing and collecting water quality data on the
skipjack. This helps students develop a better understanding of the role
of Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources and environmental issues.
Sixth-Twelfth Grades
Programs for these students are available at all three sites under the direction of their classroom teachers. Field studies include stream and estuarine water quality analysis and biological indicator monitoring such as fish and amphibian surveys.
The three high schools in St. Mary’s County are helping to develop an extensive watershed improvement and monitoring program. This project focuses on collaboration between teachers, school administrators, Division of Supporting Services and administrative staff at environmental field sites to implement the four goals of the Maryland Environmental Education Program which include:
1. Produce high performing environmentally literate students.
2. To ensure that teachers are prepared to implement effective instructional programs.
3. To create schools that model best environmental practices.
4. To provide meaningful experiences for each student concerning the Chesapeake Bay.
Residential Programs
Students and teachers may elect to stay overnight at the Elms Center. This program is offered from fourth grade through high school. Upon arrival, students are provided with tents to set up their residential camp with assistance from staff members of the Environmental Education Program.
For additional information, please contact:
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
P.O. Box 641
23160 Moakley Street
Leonardtown, Maryland 20650
301-475-5511
Margarita Rochow, Coordinator of Environmental Education Programs