Objective 2

Systemic Sustainability on Buildings and Grounds

Water Conservation/Water Pollution Prevention

Students test Hog Creek for phosphates, nitrates, pH, and dissolved oxygen.

Water Quality Monitoring

High School students monitor water quality at Greenwell State Park and Historic Sotterley to track how nearby land use practices impact the health of the lower Patuxent River as it enters the Chesapeake Bay. Approximately 100 students participate annually in October or April.

Students observe whether their modeled Best Management Practices hold up to a simulated rain storm.

Watershed Models

4th Grade students build a watershed model after learning about pervious and impervious surfaces. Through modeling, students see erosion, weathering and deposition at work on a small scale, and design mitigation solutions. Approximately 1,200 students participate annually in September or October.

Automated Nursery Sprinklers

Automated sprinkler timers save water.

7th Grade Student Service Learning students growing plants in the Native Plant Nursery learn how automated early morning sprinkling can not only save water, but also be healthier for plants. Approximately 1,200 students participate in fall and spring.

Solid Waste Reduction

Kindergarten Students Re-use Materials to Build Sandcastles.

Approximately 1,200 kindergarten students learn about how humans reuse materials to build their homes. Their culminating activity is to build their own sandcastles re-using materials that would otherwise be thrown away.

4th graders Use and Reuse Plastic Tarps

Sixty-two 4th grade classes (approximately 1,200 students) build watershed models annually. Plastic tarps covering the tables are reused by all classes. When holes develop, they are used to model infiltration instead of runoff.

Students Recycle Lunch Waste

Students are encouraged to bring reusable lunch containers. They learn what items are currently accepted for recycling, and dispose of their lunch waste accordingly.

Habitat Restoration

Bat Boxes

Eagle Scout Ryan Labor installed two bat boxes. 1,200 Kindergarten students annually study how animals use shelter and how humans can create animal shelters to enhance habitat value.

Structures for Environmental Learning

Boardwalk

Approximately 1,200 Kindergarten students utilize a boardwalk to observe crabs and fish being pulled to and from the Bay by the tides.

Pavilion

Approximately 100 high school students and 1,200 first grade students use the pavilion at Greenwell State Park as an outdoor classroom. High School students conduct water quality tests after seine netting the Patuxent River, and first graders categorize the plant materials they have collected acording to rules which they devise.

High School students conducting water quality tests.

3rd grade students begin to gather to review biotic and abiotic data collected at vernal pools.

Sitting Circle

Master Naturalist Volunteers created a sitting circle out of sections of a fallen tree near Frog Pond where students gather to review data collected and draw conclusions about habitat suitability. Used by 1,200 4th grade students in fall, 1,200 7th grade students in fall and spring, and 300 3rd grade students in winter.

Trails

Students use trails to access study sites. 1,200 3rd grade students in winter, 1,200 4th grade students in fall, 1,200 Kindergarten students in spring, and 1,200 1st grade students and 300 high school students in fall and spring.

Responsible Transportation

Program Participant Transportation

Center policy is that all students, teachers, and chaperones are transported to and from the site by bus.

We schedule so that two classes from each school share a bus, and combine classes from schools that have an odd number of classes in a particular grade.

Staff and SMCM Intern and Ridge ES Volunteer waving goodbye to Ridge 3rd grade students after a Vernal Pool ecology field study on 3-7-19.

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