The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s role in the classroom starts early. It has long offered unique learning opportunities for students in K-12 in addition to its graduate programs. Here’s a closer look at those programs.
Horn Point Environmental Education
With its environmental education facilities located on the banks of the Choptank River on the Eastern Shore, the Horn Point campus is designed for scientific exploration and understanding of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. The campus is available for lease to providers of environmental education programs for students and teachers.
Appalachian Laboratory Environmental Science Education
This Frostburg-based lab enables teachers and students to integrate real-world science in more classrooms. Programs range from studying schoolyard rainwater and runoff to exploring soil. Citizen Science invites learners of all ages to help the lab with its research on American chestnuts in western Maryland and poplar trees. The education projects build on the environmental research conducted by Appalachian Laboratory scientists.
MADE CLEAR
UMCES is the lead institution on a multi-institutional grant from the National Science Foundation targeted at developing curricula for climate change. This Maryland and Delaware Climate Change Education Assessment and Research (MADE CLEAR) program provides information on regional impacts of climate change, strategies for teaching climate change geared toward middle and high school teachers and their students. It also provides links to standards-based lessons and multimedia for teachers.
Teach Ocean Science
A group of UMCES scientists and educators collaborated under Dr. Laura Murray’s leadership to create a suite of ocean science and education resources for educators. Their combined effort offers education modules with topics and lesson plans based on field- and lab-based research, as well as ocean science curriculum vetted by teachers and scientists that would cover as much as a semester. Also available are ideas for STEM programs about the ocean.
FieldScope
This initiative of the National Geographic Society develops online mapping for citizen science investigation. One of the featured Fieldscope projects on Chesapeake Bay, developed with UMCES scientists and led by Dr. Cat Stylinski, allows students to investigate water quality issues on local and regional scales and collaborate with students across the Bay watershed to analyze data and take action.
K-12 Continuing Professional Development
The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science is proud to offer courses for educators. All courses listed are approved by the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) for Continuing Professional Development credits.