Community Partnerships
To advance its environmental stewardship curriculum, St. Martin’s partners with a variety of organizations, including the following:
|
|
Please also see the Partnerships/Resources section of Lesson Plans for specific tie-ins of partners with organizations.
For more than a decade, St. Martin’s has had an educational partnership with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. It began as a unique educational partnership through which outreach educators would come to our school and take our elementary-age students outdoors for experiential environmental learning. We learned a great deal from that special experience and, knowing that it would come to an end (in 2013), we began transitioning to the relationship we have now. Instead of their educators coming to us, we students and teachers are going to their facilities.
As part of our Oyster Restoration Program, our 3rd/4th grade class will go aboard the workboat Snow Goose to deliver the oysters the school has raised over the course of the academic year to the Fort Carroll sanctuary reef in the bay. The elementary grade students will be out on the water and learning about the beauty and fragility of the bay’s ecosystems.
Our 6th/7th grade class goes to the Arthur Sherwood Study Center, a 40-acre preserve that protects estuarine habit for wildlife. Students walk the trails, seine Meredith Creek, paddle their canoes, and identify resident wildlife. They gain a sensory experience of the interconnectedness of land, marsh, and water. They study water quality and human impacts on plants, animals, and waterways.
For a number of years now (about four or five), the 8th grade trip to CBF’s Port Isobel has been a capstone experience for our graduating class. They bond over the mud-mucking, but most importantly, they deeply absorb conservation techniques, conduct field investigations in the salt marsh, and delight in leaving the digital devices behind and encountering crabs, oysters, and fish. They learn about the human toll of rising sea levels. By overnighting in CBF’s environmentally friendly dorm and conference center, students make meals together and compost, reduce, reuse, and recycle.
We partner with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources in support of our school’s Oyster Recovery Program, for initial funding for our school’s Salad Garden, and for curriculum initiatives that are intrinsic to our Environmental Stewardship program. With the leadership and guidance provided by a trained parent volunteer (see “Community Partnerships and Environmental Synergy” by Carl Treff), we are participating the Maryland Grow Oysters program in association with the Magothy River Association (MRA). The oyster cages are tied to the piers at the Maryland Yacht Club, which was the site of our professional development field trip back in the fall. MRA recently donated seedling trees, which the 2nd graders planted at Beechwood Park. The preschool faculty, kindergarten, and 1st grade teachers are also attending workshops on Growing Up WILD, sponsored by the DNR.
We have an ongoing contractual relationship with PaperRetriever for our solid waste disposal on campus. That company can be reviewed at www.paperretriever.com
Preschool and elementary teachers invited Zoomobile to our campus in 2012 and 2013. This mobile classroom from the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore brought animals for our students to see and marvel at. They learned about behavior, habitat needs, and ecological niches. In 2014-15, preschool teachers partnered with the Annapolis Maritime Museum for its unit on “Critters of the Bay.”
The area in which our school is located is characterized by many small businesses, locally owned and operated. We partner with local businesses as appropriate to support our activities and curriculum. One such business is Ellen Allen Annapolis, a firm that imports and designs women’s accessories. The business owner is a parent of students at our school. In association with our recycled cardboard boat regatta, her company will be supply the material for making the boats, and we are negotiating with the Severna Park Community Center for the aquatic location of the regatta.
Another locally owned company we are partnering with because of their support of the Chesapeake Bay is the Chesapeake Bay Roasting Company. This company creates and sells high-quality coffees and connects its business to environmental issues that directly impact the health of the Chesapeake Bay. Five of our teachers (KC, SM, BM, GR, and SM) attended an open house tour of the company’s facility on October 22, 2014, and another (PR) is planning on attending in March. The company is working with the Oyster Recovery Program of Maryland, as we are. From our open house tours, we hope to arrange for our 5th grade class, which hosts our recycling efforts, to tour the facilities to see how the company recycles and, in particular, learn composting techniques.
The National Geographic Society is a large, multi-faceted organization. Through our school’s Distinguished Visitor Program, we have hosted National Geographic explorers and writers. Journalist and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Salopek came to our school in December 2011, when he spoke for the first time in public about the Out of Eden Walk. Since then, he has embarked on his walk around the world and has stayed in touch with our students. We are now part of his educational partners network, including OutofEdenLearn at Project Zero at the Harvard School of Education (Liz Dawes Duraisingh, who served on the AIMS/OOEW panel) and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting (Mark Schulte, education director, also on the AIMS/OOEW panel). Out of Eden Learn is keyed to our kindergarten and 1st grade and to our middle school history classes. Our guiding principles are: Global, Local, Reflective, Active. By learning about the world at large, we gain perspective on our local environment and issues. Also from the National Geographic Society has come Jennifer Holland, with her focus on animals, environment, and human-animal interactions.
The National Association of Episcopal Schools has given us a grant for a Global Bazaar in support of the Out of Eden Walk/Global Studies program at St. Martin’s. Students will prepare projects and staff booths that reflect the environment and culture of (so far) the Great Rift Valley in Africa where early humans arose, the deserts of the Middle East, and the Caucasus mountains in Turkey and Georgia.
The Annapolis Optimist Club, affiliated with international Optimists Clubs, has offered an oratorical contest to our 4th through 8th graders. In 2014, the topic was: How my passion affects the world. In 2015, the topic is: How my optimism will help me press on to greater achievements of the future. In 2014, a number of the student-chosen subjects had an environmental theme. In 2015, at least two students are speaking in 2015 on behalf of wildlife conservation. All participants gain the experience of speaking in public. Advocacy is a vital skill in caring for our environment. Through this community partnership, our students learn to research, write, and speak in public.
Just as no animal exists in isolation, so, too, does no school practice green habits without the engagement and support of an entire network of community partners. We’re grateful to our partners for their ideas, support, and spirit.
For more than a decade, St. Martin’s has had an educational partnership with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. It began as a unique educational partnership through which outreach educators would come to our school and take our elementary-age students outdoors for experiential environmental learning. We learned a great deal from that special experience and, knowing that it would come to an end (in 2013), we began transitioning to the relationship we have now. Instead of their educators coming to us, we students and teachers are going to their facilities.
As part of our Oyster Restoration Program, our 3rd/4th grade class will go aboard the workboat Snow Goose to deliver the oysters the school has raised over the course of the academic year to the Fort Carroll sanctuary reef in the bay. The elementary grade students will be out on the water and learning about the beauty and fragility of the bay’s ecosystems.
Our 6th/7th grade class goes to the Arthur Sherwood Study Center, a 40-acre preserve that protects estuarine habit for wildlife. Students walk the trails, seine Meredith Creek, paddle their canoes, and identify resident wildlife. They gain a sensory experience of the interconnectedness of land, marsh, and water. They study water quality and human impacts on plants, animals, and waterways.
For a number of years now (about four or five), the 8th grade trip to CBF’s Port Isobel has been a capstone experience for our graduating class. They bond over the mud-mucking, but most importantly, they deeply absorb conservation techniques, conduct field investigations in the salt marsh, and delight in leaving the digital devices behind and encountering crabs, oysters, and fish. They learn about the human toll of rising sea levels. By overnighting in CBF’s environmentally friendly dorm and conference center, students make meals together and compost, reduce, reuse, and recycle.
We partner with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources in support of our school’s Oyster Recovery Program, for initial funding for our school’s Salad Garden, and for curriculum initiatives that are intrinsic to our Environmental Stewardship program. With the leadership and guidance provided by a trained parent volunteer (see “Community Partnerships and Environmental Synergy” by Carl Treff), we are participating the Maryland Grow Oysters program in association with the Magothy River Association (MRA). The oyster cages are tied to the piers at the Maryland Yacht Club, which was the site of our professional development field trip back in the fall. MRA recently donated seedling trees, which the 2nd graders planted at Beechwood Park. The preschool faculty, kindergarten, and 1st grade teachers are also attending workshops on Growing Up WILD, sponsored by the DNR.
We have an ongoing contractual relationship with PaperRetriever for our solid waste disposal on campus. That company can be reviewed at www.paperretriever.com
Preschool and elementary teachers invited Zoomobile to our campus in 2012 and 2013. This mobile classroom from the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore brought animals for our students to see and marvel at. They learned about behavior, habitat needs, and ecological niches. In 2014-15, preschool teachers partnered with the Annapolis Maritime Museum for its unit on “Critters of the Bay.”
The area in which our school is located is characterized by many small businesses, locally owned and operated. We partner with local businesses as appropriate to support our activities and curriculum. One such business is Ellen Allen Annapolis, a firm that imports and designs women’s accessories. The business owner is a parent of students at our school. In association with our recycled cardboard boat regatta, her company will be supply the material for making the boats, and we are negotiating with the Severna Park Community Center for the aquatic location of the regatta.
Another locally owned company we are partnering with because of their support of the Chesapeake Bay is the Chesapeake Bay Roasting Company. This company creates and sells high-quality coffees and connects its business to environmental issues that directly impact the health of the Chesapeake Bay. Five of our teachers (KC, SM, BM, GR, and SM) attended an open house tour of the company’s facility on October 22, 2014, and another (PR) is planning on attending in March. The company is working with the Oyster Recovery Program of Maryland, as we are. From our open house tours, we hope to arrange for our 5th grade class, which hosts our recycling efforts, to tour the facilities to see how the company recycles and, in particular, learn composting techniques.
The National Geographic Society is a large, multi-faceted organization. Through our school’s Distinguished Visitor Program, we have hosted National Geographic explorers and writers. Journalist and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Salopek came to our school in December 2011, when he spoke for the first time in public about the Out of Eden Walk. Since then, he has embarked on his walk around the world and has stayed in touch with our students. We are now part of his educational partners network, including OutofEdenLearn at Project Zero at the Harvard School of Education (Liz Dawes Duraisingh, who served on the AIMS/OOEW panel) and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting (Mark Schulte, education director, also on the AIMS/OOEW panel). Out of Eden Learn is keyed to our kindergarten and 1st grade and to our middle school history classes. Our guiding principles are: Global, Local, Reflective, Active. By learning about the world at large, we gain perspective on our local environment and issues. Also from the National Geographic Society has come Jennifer Holland, with her focus on animals, environment, and human-animal interactions.
The National Association of Episcopal Schools has given us a grant for a Global Bazaar in support of the Out of Eden Walk/Global Studies program at St. Martin’s. Students will prepare projects and staff booths that reflect the environment and culture of (so far) the Great Rift Valley in Africa where early humans arose, the deserts of the Middle East, and the Caucasus mountains in Turkey and Georgia.
The Annapolis Optimist Club, affiliated with international Optimists Clubs, has offered an oratorical contest to our 4th through 8th graders. In 2014, the topic was: How my passion affects the world. In 2015, the topic is: How my optimism will help me press on to greater achievements of the future. In 2014, a number of the student-chosen subjects had an environmental theme. In 2015, at least two students are speaking in 2015 on behalf of wildlife conservation. All participants gain the experience of speaking in public. Advocacy is a vital skill in caring for our environment. Through this community partnership, our students learn to research, write, and speak in public.
Just as no animal exists in isolation, so, too, does no school practice green habits without the engagement and support of an entire network of community partners. We’re grateful to our partners for their ideas, support, and spirit.