Out of the college classroom and…back to middle school? A group of ENSPire members are preparing to share their knowledge on the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland ecosystems, and climate change with middle school girls in PG County. As part of a relatively new club on campus, these members are the first of ENSPire to participate in a club-organized public education outreach program.
The students will be collaborating with Girls Excelling in Math and Science (GEMS) to deliver three 45-minute lessons to female students in three different PG County schools. They have been developing this lesson since October 20 and will be giving the presentations on November 15, 16, and 17.
At their first meeting, the group of seven students decided what topics would be best to talk about with students aged 12 to 14. They ultimately concluded that speaking about the water cycle, Chesapeake Bay, Maryland ecosystems, climate change, and sustainability would have the greatest impact. The students also felt as if talking to the middle school girls about ways to help the environment in their own communities would be empowering and plan on incorporating this into the lesson through various activities.
This is ENSPire’s first foray into environmental education outreach and the Executive Board hopes to continue pursuing opportunities to speak with students in grade school. This GEMS/ENSPire team consists of Jillian Madsen, Theodore Thormann, Kyra Neal, Kate Hess (Sophomore, ENSP-Biodiversity and Conservation Biology), Stacy Polyakova (Freshman, ENSP-Undeclared), and Caitlin Kim (Freshman, ENSP-Undeclared) and is led by ENSPire president Logan Kline (Sophomore, ENSP-Marine and Coastal Management).
Pictured above: Jillian Madsen (Sophomore, ENSP-Politics and Policy), Theodore Thormann (Junior, ENSP-Biodiversity and Conservation), and Kyra Neal (Sophomore, ENSP-Wildlife Ecology and Management)
