Maryland Homes and Gardening

Grant to help students in Calvert and St. Mary's counties study the environment

Details

Category: Chesapeake Communities

Published on Wednesday, 05 September 2012 20:00

Written by Karen Gaspers

Dominion has awarded a $10,000 K-12 education grant for the development of an environmental education curriculum inspired by Tom Wisner's Center for the Chesapeake Story Collection (Chestory). The Calvert Marine Museum, in partnership with the Chesapeake Education, Arts, and Research Society (CHEARS), and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory will work with selected teachers in Calvert and St. Mary's counties to create hands-on, classroom-based lesson plans that focus on local environmental science.

Tom Wisner (1930-2010), co-founder of Chestory, was a poet, folklorist, artist, singer, and Maryland's first environmental educator. He spent most of his career helping students and audiences make connections with the Chesapeake Bay. Wisner left behind a lifetime of work, including interdisciplinary educational activities, lessons, programs, artwork, and music. Through a grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust and the Chesapeake Conservation Corps program, CMM and CHEARS partnered to hire Concetta Laskey to organize, catalogue, and archive Wisner's collection. In April 2012, the Chestory Virtual Archive became a reality at the Calvert Marine Museum and is available online at chesapeake-envliteracy.com/CVA.

Dominion's support will provide not only for the creation of environmental education lesson plans, but for the piloting of this curriculum in the classroom. Eventually this will be shared with other teachers and be made available online.

Energy company, Dominon, and the Dominion Foundation provides awards annually to schools and educational organizations to help revitalize programs. In the area of K-12 education, Dominion awards up to $10,000 in grants to encourage the development of new programs that strengthen math and science education through the study of energy or the environment.

• < Prev
• Next >