Success Stories
Michelle Lee & Megan Ward -James Island HS green grant
Biology students at James Island Charter High School wanted their school to be more environmentally friendly. So they went around campus, researched what could be done and wrote a two-page grant application to the Sustainability Institute of South Carolina. Their ideas included adding rain barrels to collect rainwater, a rain garden with butterfly houses, planting native plants on school grounds, creating green walkways and constructing a wall of plants. Their ideas and efforts paid off. The school was awarded $10,170 from the Institute's GREENS fund to make those ideas a reality at the school.
The students explained that using rain barrels to collect rainwater could eliminate puddles and flooding on the school grounds. The rain barrels would be used to water plants in a "smart irrigation system." A green wall of plants could clean the air and reduce temperatures in the immediate area by as much as 2 degrees, thereby saving energy on air conditioning. The project is presently underway.
Sandie Baney – Devon Forest ES
For three years in a row, Devon Forest Elementary educator Sandie Baney has been leading her 5th grade classes through the Earth Force process. Ranging from working to preserve green space around their school to controlling litter in their communities, these projects have all made a big difference both in the lives of the students involved and in the surrounding community, and this year's project is no different!
After completing the first step in the Earth Force process, the community environmental inventory, the students conducted a vote and settled on working with endangered animals. This was a large undertaking for the students, and the next step for them was to conduct research on what makes an animal endangered, the types of animals listed as endangered in South Carolina, and the South Carolina Nongame and Endangered Species Act. They conducted their research on the internet and also wrote letters to organizations and individuals in the community that they thought could help them understand their issue better, such as the Sierra Club, the Nature Conservancy, and local government officials. After conducting this research, the students became experts in their own right, and decided that the aspect of this issue that they wanted to address was the current penalties for "taking" (harassing, hunting, capturing, or killing or attempting to harass, hunt, capture, or kill), possessing, transporting, exporting, processing, selling or offering for sale or shipping endangered species. The students felt that the penalties were too low, and were not sufficient to truly discourage people from harming endangered species.
In order to change this policy, the students decided to launch a letter writing campaign to their government officials, including state senators and representatives, explaining the issue to them and their reasons for wanting the penalties increased. The students have received responses from Representatives Patsy Knight and McLain Toole, and Senator John Land III also responded and gave some additional information on the penalties. All officials commended the students for their concern and efforts on behalf of endangered animals. The students plan to send out more letters throughout the spring, and they are most excited to write second letters to the officials that have not previously responded.
Ms. Baney also entered this year's project in an annual competition held by the nonprofit Berkeley County Kids Who Care about the Environment and the class won third place for their efforts.
Michele Powell - Wando HS
Michele Powell has completed two strong projects with two different classes of Earth Force students. Her first class broke into two groups, each deciding to tackle two major issues – global warming and preserving wetlands. In order to make a difference with these two very complex and important issues, the students decided to create presentations that they could take to local elementary schools to educate young students about. They performed research on each of these topics, and created PowerPoint presentations along with activities that they then took to two local elementary schools to present to 5th graders.
Ms. Powell’s second class decided to help a local zoo that was in need of informational placards on all of their animals. The students wanted to ensure that visitors to the zoo not only got to see all of these animals, but also learned something about each of them. So they performed research on all of the animals in the zoo and created educational tip sheets that were then laminated and placed all around the zoo in order to make it more of an educational experience for visitors.
Margaret Spigner - West Ashley HS
For the past few years, the population of Charleston County has been booming, bringing with it increased development. While some development is inevitable, Margaret Spigner’s Investigative Research class at West Ashley High School, along with the help of Lowcountry Earth Force, is working to control some of this development by preserving the undeveloped land around their school.
The class’s mission statement that describes their current Earth Force project is “We’re striving to protect and improve the community as well as the environment for today and years to come.” Although the mission sounds ambitious, the students are already taking huge steps towards this goal by working to preserve land around their school as green space. The students first became interested in this project when they realized that if the plot surrounding the school is developed, students would lose the aesthetics around the school entrance, along with the ability to use the undeveloped area to continue a nature trail that runs along half of the school’s property.
The class began by enlisting numerous community experts and officials to help them in their quest. The first person they spoke with was an associate planner from the zoning commission, Chris Inglese. Through Inglese, the students learned that they might be able to get the main road to their school, West Wildcat Boulevard, designated as an “undeveloped frontage road buffer”, which would ensure at least 75 feet of undeveloped land between this road and any future development.
Armed with this information, the students wrote many letters to community leaders, including a letter to Zoning Administrator Lee Batchelder asking him to consider changing the designation of West Wildcat Boulevard. They have also started circulating a petition to both students and community members who support the green space, and surveyed students to assess interest in the issue.
The highlight of the project so far has been the opportunity for the students to speak to Mayor Joe Riley. The class prepared a PowerPoint presentation and short video to present to the Mayor and to ask for his support on their endeavors.
Through using the Earth Force process, Ms. Spigner’s class is not only working to improve the community, but they are also learning about zoning issues, the processes of government, the preservation of green space and sharpening their communication and problem solving skills. Congratulations and best of luck to Ms. Spigner and her class as they work to fulfill their mission of protecting the community and it’s valuable green space!
Eva Stratos - Belle Hall ES
Eva Stratos and her fifth grade SAIL students decided that they wanted to work to increase the biodiversity on their school’s campus. They decided one strategy for tackling this issue would be build bluebird boxes and place them around the school. They conducted research on what goes into making a good bluebird box, what the natural habitat of the bluebird is, the breeding habits of the bluebird, and where the best locations on campus would be to place the boxes. They made 10 bluebird boxes themselves and placed them all around campus. Ms. Stratos will be working with this same group of students again next year, so they hope to continue this project and continue contributing to the area’s biodiversity.
Katy Roop and Andrea Langely - Academic Magnet HS
Ms. Roop and Ms. Langely worked with their students on the continuation of a project that has been ongoing for three years. The students have “adopted” the local waterway Noisette Creek, and conduct water testing on the creak all year long. They turn their results in projects discussing the possible causes of some of the pollutants found in the creek. The culmination of their project was the 3rd Annual Noisette Creek Day, where students gathered out along the banks of the creek for a day of learning about the plants and animals that live in the watershed, learning about using GPS to map an area, and conducting a clean-up of the creek itself.
Corriet Tisdale - Lincoln HS
Students in Ms. Tisdale’s environmental studies class at Lincoln HS decided that they wanted to tackle the large project of cleaning up and beautifying a popular gathering space on Lincoln High School’s campus. With this goal in mind, the students began their project by drawing up plans for the area of the campus they intended to clean up and then had those plans approved by the principal. Secondly, the students held a clean-up day where they worked on picking up litter in the area, raking, clearing out space around existing trees to plant flowers, and clearing out existing flower beds. With the area cleaned up and plans approved the students then began to focus on the specifics of how to beautify the area. They obtained new picnic tables for the gathering space and placed the tables in a more community friendly manner. They secured numerous trees, flowers, and plants to install throughout the gathering space and also built numerous bird houses to encourage biodiversity on their campus. Due to the efforts of this group, all students at Lincoln High can now benefit from the beautification of the common area.
Jacara Chas – Homeschool
Jacara Chas worked on an Earth Force project with her 5 children that she teaches at home. Her children decided that they were most interested in using the internet as a tool to organize and educate people on the environmental issues and organizations in their community. They learned about a local web developer that was creating the website www.sclean.org. The website is “a volunteer coalition of individuals and organizations using technology to foster communication, collaboration, and resource sharing”. They decided to work to create this website, conducting research on different organizations and resources in the community that they could include on the website. The website has now become a place where people can go to learn about organizations, events, and opportunities all focused on preserving the environment of the Lowcountry and beyond.
Ray McKevlin, Mary Moore, and Marcella Pinckney – Haut Gap MS
6th grade students at Haut Gap MS undertook the project of looking at their community to see how prepared they were for a natural disaster – primarily a hurricane. They interviewed local agencies, surveyed community members and took an inventory of different measures in place to remediate any effects of a large natural disaster. They took it further by making recommendations to how these measures and agencies could be most effective in an emergency. These educators will be continuing this project for the upcoming school year.