West Ashley High Hosts Symposium

West Ashley High School educators Robin Carter-Greig and Margaret Spigner (Staples Teacher), both pictured above, started out the school year using the GREEN program with an after-school club. After many students had scheduling conflicts causing the club attendance to fluctuate considerably, the teachers decided to get all of their students involved in Earth Force projects.

With many classes participating, the students came up with multiple ideas for projects that they began to envision as all part of a much larger project and issue--protecting our natural diversity. Lowcountry Earth Force worked with the teachers to coordinate a policy and practice research symposium, which would give students in different classes the opportunity to come together and meet with community partners to share project ideas with one another. The P.O.N.D. (Protecting Our Natural Diversity) Symposium brought together more than 130 students and nine community experts to discuss plans for Earth Force projects.

Experts included speakers from the Native Plant Society of South Carolina, SC DHEC’s Office of Coastal Resource Management (OCRM), Cypress Gardens, Audubon Francis Beidler Forest, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), SC Sea Grant Consortium Extension Program, The Charleston Civic Design Center and The College of Charleston.

"The Protecting Our Natural Diversity" plan includes building blue bird boxes, planting a riparian buffer around the school’s retention pond, creating a nature trail and attracting butterflies to the campus. The students hope to reveal their finished projects by April for Earth Day.

The symposium concluded with an awards ceremony. Spigner and Greig applied for and won SC Department of Health and Environmental Control’s monthly grant award for the month of December. The teachers accepted an award plaque and $500 check on behalf of their Earth Force group. Lowcountry Earth Force also presented the teachers and school with the first of three Lowcountry Earth Force Staples Environmental Achievement Awards to be given out this semester to Staples sponsored schools. Channel 5 News, which covered the event in the evening news presented The Golden Apple Award to West Ashley High School’s Earth Force Group.