St. Mary's County students learning about the environment!

St. Mary’s County Public Schools Environmental Education Programs

The Environmental Education Program is an excellent example of an effective, long-term partnership between educators, parents, and the local and state government.  The goal of the program is to offer a dynamic field-oriented, hands-on environmental study program that is interdisciplinary in nature, sequentially developed, and available to all students.

The role of authentic field experiences in the enhancement of learning is significant.  St. Mary’s County Public Schools, through its environmental education programs, realizes this importance and provides three sites for implementing the field study program.

The Elms Environmental Education Center located on the Chesapeake Bay, provides access to streams, forests, wetlands and the Chesapeake Bay shoreline.  The Environmental Education Program in partnership with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the St. Mary’s County Board of County Commissioners has provided this study site for students for over twenty-five years.

Historic Sotterley Plantation, located on the Patuxent River, has been used by the St. Mary’s County Public Schools for over twenty years.  It provides the background for historic presentations on man’s history on the waterways and magnificent gardens for the student garden program.

The Piney Point Aquaculture Center, located on the Potomac River, provides students with the opportunity to learn about the aquaculture programs of The Maryland Department of Natural Resources and experience a trip aboard the skipjack from the Chesapeake Bay Field Lab.

Every student, kindergarten through seventh grade, has the opportunity to participate in a sequentially developed environmental education program each year.  In addition, programs for the eighth through twelfth grades are available using all three sites.  There are currently approximately 10,000 student visits annually to environmental sites.  This expansion is a clear indication of a successful and evolving partnership between schools, community, and county government.

Overview of programs offered at the three sites:

Pre-kindergarten

          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

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