From our establishment in 1980 in an abandoned house at the end of a half-mile long driveway served by limited electric service, the culture of the St. Mary's County Schools (SMCPS) Elms Environmental Education Center has been both lean and green by design and by necessity. Our rooms were designed to hold families, not classes, pushing our programs appropriately into the field. Experiential education in the environment not only engages students in real-life phenomena, it also minimizes the need for simulated models and printed materials. During times of fiscal austerity, we began using the back sides of used paper for copying, a practice that we continue today. When our switch to electronic data collection in the field as an attempt at further paper reduction was rendered unreliable by limited cell and wireless services, we began using laminated data collection instruments that could be wiped off and reused where possible. Since our electric service does not have the capacity to power air conditioning, our building is cooled by natural Bay breezes that it was designed to capture.
We provide hands-on meaningful opportunities for students to grow in their understanding of the processes which govern the natural world, striving to incorporate green practices, such as recycling, into each of our lessons. In Kindergarten, discarded materials are reused to create shelters. In many lessons, students use reusable checklists, maps, dry erase boards and other materials that leave no trace. While dip-netting and collecting specimens, students are encouraged to collect trash that blows or washes onto the Elms property. In these ways we engage students in promoting a healthier and sustainable community for the surrounding ecosystems. The Center models sustainable operations of its building, grounds and programs, and supports SMCPS schools in the Maryland Green School certification process by offering professional development, technical support, lesson modeling, and schoolyard habitat assessment and planning.
As we continue to meet former Elms students when they return as parent (and grandparent) chaperones, we are reminded of the place that the SMCPS Elms Environmental Education Programs hold in our community. We strive to educate and to model sustainable environmental practices to students, teachers, chaperones and our community. We are known within the SMCPS community and beyond as re-users, and are regularly offered used crayons, markers, glue sticks, aquaria, pots, composters, bird feeders, field guides, boots and rain coats. When we have no need for an offered donation, we try to connect the donor with a school or community organization that does. We offer public extension programs for both families and adults outside of school hours to support environmental literacy in our school communities.
Responding to the lack of affordable, locally-available native plants for environmental restoration projects on school grounds, our Student Service Learning Program operates the Elms Native Plant Nursery. While learning about the role of native plants in their ecosystem, students care for nursery plants, collect seeds, transplant seedlings, construct and repair supporting features such as grow-out boxes and fencing, and, of course, conduct restoration projects by planting the natives. The plants grown by the students have been planted at the Elms, in numerous schoolyard habitats, and at community sites such as St. Mary's College of Maryland, Greenwell State Park, the Lexington Park Library, and St. Mary's County Recreation and Park properties including Myrtle Point Park, Nicolet Park, and the Great Mills Pool.
While providing field studies in support of Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences for approximately 10,000 public and parochial students annually, the Center continues to adapt to the needs of a changing community and a world that is becoming more aware of its need to understand our interdependence with the natural world.