EDUCATION
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The SEWEE Association reached over 14,000 people during Environmental Education programs in 2011! Check out our latest project: Water monitoring in Georgetown County
ATTENTION TEACHERS
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See what happened when Montessori Fountainhead Elementary School's visited the Sewee Center!
We offer many lessons at the Sewee Visitor & Environmental Education Center in Awendaw and the Waccamaw Environmental Education Center in Georgetown on Freshwater Wetlands, Forests, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Salt Marsh Ecology and animals found within the Coastal Plain of South Carolina. These lessons are designed for the one-day visit and are available for grades K-12.
For more information on classes that are available, click here for a listing of programs for Sewee or programs at Waccamaw and then contact Julie Binz at 843-928-3368 or juliebinz@earthlink.net.
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OUR EARTH STEWARD SCHOOLS
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Since 1999 we have partnered with local schools in the Sewee Earth Stewards program. This is a multi-week program focused on freshwater wetlands, designed using the curriculum standards. Our staff works with teachers to present lessons and activities in the classroom and field studies in the Forest or on our Refuges. Students participate in hands-on, interactive classes and learn first-hand the purposes of this ecosystem.
During the 2011-2012 school year, 12 schools from Charleston, Berkeley, and Georgetown Counties participated with over 770 students and teachers in this program.
This year we held a No Waste Lunch Contest with all the Earth Stewards Schools. Every time they came on a field trip, we weighed their trash. The goal was to create less trash going to landfills. We encouraged reusable containers to even reduce the amount of trash that needed to be recycled. Space on our earth is non-renewable and trash in the environment can harm wildlife. If we use reusable containers, we can save these valuable resources! All of the schools made great strides to reduce the amount of trash they produced. Keep reading to find out who the winners were and hear what else the Earth Stewards were up to this year!
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Belle Hall Elementary -- These students have sold over 1,500 Loggerhead Sea Turtle grocery bags to their classmates to reduce the amount of plastic bags that are used! See them in the video above. They also just won the "No-Waste Lunch" award. On their last trip, they had less than a 1-quart bag of waste for 60 students!
Boulder Bluff Elementary -- Boulder Bluff Earth Stewards braved the rain in April to go on their Ion Swamp Field Study!
Browns Ferry Elementary -- These Earth Stewards visited Huntington Beach State Park this spring. They observed plants that grow close to saltwater compared to the freshwater species we studied this fall along the PeeDee River at Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge.
Carvers Bay Middle -- Students from Carvers Bay experienced what it is like to be a biologist studying the endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker that inhabits Sandy Island.
Lincoln Middle/High -- These 7th graders helped out our local pollinators by planting native wildflowers in front of the Sewee Center. Come check out the garden this summer!
McDonald Elementary -- As part of their Earth Stewards program, these 5th graders increased recycling in their cafeteria and educated the entire school how to do this and why it is important! They also won our "Most Improved School" in the No Waste Lunch Contest.
Minnie Hughes Elementary
The 5th graders had so much fun at Ernest F Hollings ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge this fall that the entire school wanted to get involved and help the Refuge. Along with our volunteers Grant and Kathy Greider, and interns Nick Penna and Jonathan Malriat, we worked with every student from Pre-Kindergarten through 6th grade to build bluebird boxes. Then the students installed them at the Refuge this spring. These boxes provide nesting habitat for bluebirds and other cavity nesting birds. Visit the Grove Plantation at the ACE Basin Refuge and check them out.
Plantersville Elementary -- These students joined Browns Ferry Earth Stewards at Huntington Beach State Park as the last part of the program this year. Thanks to the Frances P. Bunnelle Foundation for their continued support of our Earth Stewards schools in Georgetown County!
St. James-Santee Elementary -- Now the Earth Stewards can learn about local wildlife all year, along with the rest of their schoolmates. The Animal Olympics trail is complete at St. James-Santee. Take a walk on their nature trail and test your physical abilities. Can you flap your wings like a Monarch?
Stono Park Elementary -- The Sewee Center reptiles are visiting school again this spring as part of their Reading Celebration to reward students who have read lots of books this year.
Sullivans Island Elementary -- These 5th graders explored Ion Swamp this fall and they were surprised how different the habitat was compared to their marine home!
Zucker Middle School of Science -- Olga Caballero, Archaeologist for the US Forest Service, joins Zucker Middle School Earth Stewards at the Sewee Shell Ring to show artifacts and tell stories about the Sewee Indians that called this area home thousands of years ago.
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H2O Monitoring Project in Georgetown County
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Teondre Bromell and Damion Franklin check salinity levels in the Great Pee Dee River at Samworth WMA.
The SEWEE Association has begun a new project in collaboration with Service over Self and the Waccamaw Riverkeeper to engage local middle and high school students. These students will perform water monitoring tests on the Great Pee Dee and Sampit Rivers monthly. They are doing classic monitoring for Dissolved Oxygen, pH levels and turbidity, and we have added salinity testing. There is an interest in how the rising sea levels are impacting our freshwater rivers, so these tests will give us information about the amount of salt water pushing up these rivers each month.
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Check out our gallery to see what the students are up to!