BURKE COUNTY ENVIRONMENTAL FIELD DAY

The BURKE COUNTY ENVIRONMENTAL FIELD DAY will be Thursday April 18th at the Burke County Fairgrounds in Morganton, North Carolina. 

Focused primarily on STEM education outreach to underserved students with an emphasis on building community partnerships and capacity in our new home county, NCSSM-Morganton will partner with Burke County Public Schools, the North Carolina School for the Deaf and the Burke County Soil & Water Conservation District to plan and deliver this year’s 2024 Burke County Environmental Field Day. 

This year’s Burke County Environmental Field Day is built upon a decade long collaboration and service between many members of the community.  

The field day was originally designed to serve as an engaging, cross curricular, outdoor review for the 5th grade North Carolina Essential Standards for Science for all of the 5th grade students (800+) in Burke County and NCSD. The 5th grade classes rotate through educational stations that are spread out across large fields to help inspire a connection to the surrounding natural beauty of our area. The stations are led and taught by high school students who have prepared materials, lessons, games, and activities that cover a range of science topics. The stations in the past included; forestry, wildlife & aquatic ecology, climate, water quality and conservation, soils, forces & motion, energy transfers, and the human body. 

This year’s Environmental Field Day will expand the event’s opportunities by inviting local STEM professionals from local organizations to join in celebrating professions, careers, and educational opportunities available across Western North Carolina. We will create stations for these STEM professionals so that they too can help inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, conservationists, and innovative North Carolinians.

In years past, the organizers and teachers involved have witnessed countless students gain soft skills through this event that are often difficult or impossible to recreate in a traditional classroom setting. As young scientists it helps them realize the importance of communicating science in an effective and engaging way so as to reach people from all walks of life.