JAMES ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) – A science teacher at James Island Charter High School hopes you’ll help her provide her students with the tools to collect and analyze scientific data, specifically how sea level rise is changing our local environment.
Eve Kendrick believes her students could be the key to solving serious environmental problems in the Lowcountry.
“My students are very enthusiastic and passionate, and they’re full of life,” she says. “I want to capture and harvest that energy and maybe direct it toward some environmental stewardship through learning about different aspects of sea level rise in environmental science.”
Kendrick plans to encourage this stewardship through a real-world research project in the field looking into coastal freshwater streams. The project aims to document how sea level rise and saltwater moving further inland are transforming these freshwater environments.
“We’re going to be looking at insects, and using these insects as an indicator of how our streams are changing,” she says. “They’ll be able to process these samples on the streambed outside, and they’re really going to get a personal connection with these ecosystems that maybe wasn’t on their radar before as something really critical to monitor.”
Kendrick hopes to provide her students with the tools to carry out this monitoring through her project on Donors Choose is called “Too Salty! Sea Level Rise & Freshwater Environments.”
She plans to buy nets, waders, sieves and other testing equipment to track how these delicate coastal environments are being affected.
“I’m going to partner with the Adopt-a-Stream organization in South Carolina, and so this data that my students will collect through my ‘Too Salty’ Donors Choose project, that’s actually going to go into a state database,” Kendrick says. “Scientists will be able to access it, and it’s going to allow my students to take ownership of the research that’s currently happening in our state.”
With your donation, you’ll be able to not only make an impact on students but also your local environment now and into the future, Kendrick says.
“We’re going to take all of our skills and take them outside so [my students] can actually get their hands dirty and wet and actually collect insects and process their own data,” she says. “I think that going outside and having a personal connection with the environment helps to encourage students to become lifelong learners. It also might encourage them to have some environmental stewardship as they move forward as adults and citizens in South Carolina.”
Kendrick also has a second Donors Choose project called “Interactive Biology and Data Analysis” that is designed to bring biology concepts to life through collaboration, realistic case studies and interactive labs. She plans to use basic resources funded through the project, including calculators and clipboards, to create a notebook documenting her students’ problem-solving and analyses.
You can become a Live 5 Classroom Champion for these students by helping to fund these projects. All donations are tax-deductible. The Donors Choose organization collects the money, purchases the items and sends them to the teacher. That way you know your donation is used appropriately.
If you’re a teacher who would like their Donors Choose project featured on Classroom Champions, please email [email protected].
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