| |
Education Home > The Nature of Learning Home > Project Site Links >
Sewee Stewards – Cape Romain NWR
 |
| Students define a "kingdom" with string and rulers, then record everything that is found within their kingdom. This data will be used later to write a story or poem. |
Cape Romain NWR, located near Charleston, South Carolina, serves as a model site for education on public lands. Since the beginning of the program in 1998, Sewee Stewards has expanded from 50 students to over 650 students in 2003-2004.
The program started with an intensive eight-week curriculum on freshwater wetlands for fifth-grade students. The curriculum includes hands-on classroom activities on flora and fauna found in a swamp, including close examination of educational animals including an alligator. There are four field studies within the curriculum and students use I'on Swamp within Francis Marion National Forest as their introductory and research study site. Students also visit the Sewee Visitor and Environmental Education Center to learn about endangered species and compasses and an historical plantation to learn how the old rice plantations of the SC Lowcountry have preserved wetlands for habitat.
In 2003 a new pilot program began with seventh-graders studying salt marsh and barrier island habitats. These students use activities from the Shorebird Sister Schools curriculum along with other lessons to study birds, red wolves, loggerhead sea turtles and other animals found on Cape Romain NWR. Their field studies involve a trip to a Native American Shell Mound site on the salt marsh and a ferry trip to Bulls Island to explore the maritime forest and beach habitats.
Last year also saw a new component for the fifth-graders with the creation of "Careers Come Naturally", a day-long adventure at the Sewee Center where multiple state and federal agencies engage students in activities typical of conservation careers.
Waccamaw NWR will become involved the Sewee Stewards in 2003-2004 with the introduction of the program to 2 schools in Georgetown County. These rural elementary schools are within 20 minutes of the site of the proposed visitor center for Waccamaw and will become the first students of this relatively new refuge.
Learn more about this program >>
Sewee Stewards Contact:
Karen Beshears
Executive Director
SEWEE Association
Mt. Pleasant, SC 29465
843.884.7539
sewee.association@earthlink.net
http://seweecenter.fws.gov/association.htm
|
|
|
|
-
Back -
|
