Talbot County 7th Grade Plastic Podcast
In the summer of 2019, ShoreRivers Director of Education and Outreach Suzanne Sullivan met with Talbot County Gifted and Talented teacher Colin Stebbins and discussed green job opportunities and outreach projects with him. Following up on this meeting, ShoreRivers Educator Meg Buonpane met with 7th grade students at Saint Michael's and Easton Middle Schools in Talbot County to help them develop an environment-focused podcast on January 9, 2020. The students decided to create a podcast that explores the complicated relationship between humans and plastic. Their final product, The Plasti-Cast, was shared to the ShoreRivers website as a news update on March 9, 2020. Please follow the SoundCloud link embedded in the previous sentence to explore The Plasti-Cast. ShoreRivers and our involvement is discussed from timestamps 0:58-1:50 of the "Introduction" episode of the podcast. 12 students participated.
Chapel District Elementary Rain Garden
As a part of our Chesapeake Bay Trust-funded pilot year for the Sturgeon Discovery program, we helped third grade students at Chapel District Elementary School install a courtyard garden on their campus to prevent schoolyard runoff into storm drains. The students decided to conduct this action project after learning about how runoff can carry trash, loose soil, and more pollutants to storm drains and into the rivers and the Bay, which can harm sturgeon and their habitat. ShoreRivers provided plants and tools to Ms. Katelin Cep's class. On April 9, 2019, ShoreRivers Director of Education and Outreach Suzanne Sullivan, Community Engagement Manager Rebecca Murphy, and Chesapeake Conservation Corps Member Rachel Plescha, along with partner Mikaela Boley, Master Gardener Coordinator at the University of Maryland Extension, joined Ms. Cep's classes to plant over 100 native plants to prevent runoff. 55 students participated.