Kalysha Clark

One of the great things about my AmeriCorps position is that I get to work with kids from all over the Piedmont Triad and show them that science can be fun. When these kids are having fun and playing, they don't even realize that they're learning, just as they would if they were in a classroom.

Hands-on and interactive learning is a great way to get kids outside and that's one of the great things about environmental education. Check out some of my pictures below from activities and programs I've been doing.

Participants at a camp in Burlington learn about macroinvertebrates and water pollution by playing tag.

Each kid was given a different tag that showed a bug. Some bugs were more tolerant to pollution than others. Those that were sensitive to pollution had their movements more limited. This illustrated that more sensitive bugs are more susceptible to pollution because they're more likely to be tagged.

My supervisor talks about why the Yadkin River is low and why it's brown in color. Sediment, which is the biggest pollutant in NC, makes the water brown.

Students in Burlington sample the stream at City Park.

And then they look at what they found.

Kids at a Wildlife Camp in Burlington sample Lake Cammack.

Then they use buckets and pipettes to study what they found.

These kids may not even realize that what they're doing is science. And they're having fun!

Last Thursday, Stormwater SMART visited our last class of the 2014-2015 school year. Gibsonville Elementary 4^th graders got a bird’s eye view of watersheds and learned more about the human impacts on our water quality as I led them through a program using the Enviroscape Model ®. 



The Enviroscape Model ® is a 3-D model of a watershed that shows how precipitation that does not soak into the ground always travels downhill to a river or lake.  As students act out different human activities such as fertilizing the farm, taking their dog for a walk, or driving a car that needs maintenance, pollutants are left behind on the surface of the model.  When rain falls on the land the pollutants are picked up in the rain fall runoff or stormwater and carried to the lake at the bottom of the watershed.  The activity shows how small incidences of pollution add up to be a big problem for our water resources.

A student rains on the watershed.

This student's action card said: you are clearing property for a new house. As a result, she had to remove trees that were on the landscape and replace it with dirt. Trees and other plants hold soil and dirt in place. Without them, soil can wash into bodies of water. In NC and much of the south, soil is the number 1 type of water pollution.

At the end of our lesson, we sat down together to brainstorm what 4th graders could do to reduce and prevent pollution. We had a lot of great ideas thrown around, including recycling at home, reusing or re-purposing items, picking up litter, and even writing a letter to the school to get a recycling program started. 

As the end of the school year approaches rapidly, many students have already "checked out" and are preparing for their summer vacation. This can be a frustrating time for teachers, particularly if the end of grade exams have already taken place, but the expectation to continue with lessons is there. 

The Incredible Journey is an activity that allows students to become a water molecule, moving through the ocean, clouds, rivers, animals and more.

I spent the last day and a half at Haw River State Park participating in a workshop called Methods of Teaching EE, a requirement for individuals who are working to obtain their North Carolina Environmental Education (EE) certification.

I learned a lot in a day and a half, particularly surrounding the practice of teaching, which is something I don't have much experience with.

We discussed learning styles and the importance of considering learning styles other than your own when planning for and teaching a lesson. We also learned about many different types of teaching methods, including story-telling, games, discovery/exploratory learning, moral dilemmas, discussion and many more.

I also got to learn about how to align your programs with education standards and how to write lessons that have solid objectives.

Additionally, we also talked about designing lessons around age groups.

My group designed a lesson about bugs for 12 year olds to adults.

Our lesson plan was to start with a discussion about bug life cycles and introduce the audience to the body parts of bugs. We would then go out and explore outside, seeing if we could find bugs in various stages of the life cycle. Any specimens we caught could be placed on the laminated sheets in the appropriate block for that life cycle stage. We also had magnifying lenses that could be used to inspect what we found.

We chose wheat from the crackers.

We also participated in a lesson that had us trace back an ingredient in our food all the way to its start and consider what kind of processes it went through to get to us. We had to think about all the impacts that this had on wildlife. The purpose of this event, however, was to emphasize diversity training. One group had pepperoni assigned to them, but how would someone feel if they were in that group and only ate Kosher? Our group had cheese and crackers. How would someone feel if they were in our group and were vegan?

Overall, I really enjoyed the workshop and I got a lot to take home and think about for the next time I am planning lessons and teaching a group of people!

A rain garden is a shallow depression that collects a few inches of rain water and allows it to be absorbed into the ground or by plants, instead of running off directly into nearby streams and lakes.

Plants and soil trap, absorb and filter pollutants found in stormwater runoff, including fertilizers, pesticides, oil, metals and pet waste.

Rain gardens help us:

• improve water quality
• increase the amount of water that filters into the ground, therefore recharging the aquifer
• prevent flooding, erosion and drainage problems
• protect stream and lakes from pollutants carried by urban stormwater
• enhance the beauty of our community
• provide valuable habitat for birds, frogs, butterflies and beneficial insects

Students assemble their materials in their bottles.

Students wait to see whose rain garden was the best as retaining and filtering water.

On Wednesday, I started my position at Piedmont Triad Regional Council full-time. I spent a day in the office reading, learning and taking everything in before hitting the ground running.

During my finals weeks, I took part in some programs with my supervisor, including a creek assessment and water quality - ask the bugs, a program that is similar to the creek assessment, but for younger audiences and that uses a fake stream and bugs.

We sampled the creek for macroinvertebrates and used our data sheets to record our findings. We looked at our recorded data to determine how polluted the stream was.

Students sample a fake stream for bugs.

Students sort through the bugs and identify the ones they found, recording it on their data sheets.

This week, I started out by doing another creek assessment at Trinity High School with the Earth and Environmental Science students. We found lots of great invertebrates, which tell us about the quality of the water, including mayflies, caddisflies, midges, and stoneflies. We also found plenty of crawdads (aka crayfish) and baby salamanders!

Students collect macroinvertebrates and use their data to determine the quality of the water.

Flipping our net inside out so we can rinse off any organisms we caught.

Baby salamander we found.

Friday, I was at North Davidson Middle School teaching students about watershed and pollution using our EnviroScape model. This is a fun and interactive way for students to learn about nonpoint source pollution and how everyday actions could pollute water without us even realizing.

Using the EnviroScape to teach students about pollution and water quality.

This hands on model allows students to act as pollutants or rain and watch as the water travels through the watershed.

Saturday, I represented Stormwater SMART at the city of Summerfield's Founders Day Festival. I talked to festival visitors about water quality, the importance of picking up after your pets, using rain gauges to prevent excess water use and more.

At Stormwater SMART's booth during the Summerfield Founders Day Festival!

Tomorrow, I will be at Central Davidson High School working with students in the Agriculture and Horticulture classes on making rain gardens.

You are looking at the new Stormwater Outreach Coordinator for the Piedmont Triad Regional Council!

This is a position through AmeriCorps and is called Project GEOS (Growing Environmental Opportunities through Service). For those who don't know, AmeriCorps is similar to the Peace Corps, but it's for service in the United States. I will serve from March 30th until January 30th, 2016 and will complete 1700 hours.

The Piedmont Triad Regional Council (PTRC) is a voluntary association of local governments that are authorized to make and implement joint regional decisions, provide management, planning and technical services to local governments, bring together local elected officials and give them an opportunity to form working relationships and more. PTRC operates in Alamance, Caswell, Davidson, Davie, Forsyth, Guilford, Montgomery, Randolph, Rockingham, Stokes, Surry and Yadkin counties in North Carolina.

As the Stormwater Outreach Coordinator, my responsibilities fall into three categories: environmental education, conservation volunteer program development, and disaster preparedness.

In short, here are some things I can expect to do while serving at the PTRC.

• Create outreach materials such as blogs, newsletters, flyers, brochures and programs to expand participation on environmental education events.
• Provide outreach for PTRC at local fairs and festivals
• Assist in providing hands-on environmental education activities
• Establish a volunteer policy for Stormwater Smart
• Recruit, train and lead volunteers during conservation activities such as water quality monitoring, storm drain marking, rain garden building, litter removal, etc.
• Assist in development of a disaster preparedness program