Recent Education Events
EARTH FEST 2023
The Henderson County Soil & Water Conservation District recently was able to participate in Earth Fest 2023 in downtown Hendersonville. We had the opportunity to showcase our new Conservation Learning Center, a mobile educational trailer that focuses on soil and water topics. News 13 WLOS documented the event and you can see our trailer in action here: Earth Fest 2023
LEARNING FROM AFAR
Even though Henderson County has transitioned to a learn from home school model, the Henderson Soil & Water Conservation District (SWCD) is available to support teachers as they creatively enhance learning for our local students! Here’s a shout-out to Heather Sowry, third grade teacher at Hendersonville Elementary. Mrs. Sowry’s third grade class learned about soils earlier in the year and participated in our educational poster contest! Did you know that not just students, but teachers also have a chance to win educational prizes? Mrs. Sowry is putting these prizes to good use! A small indoor/outdoor greenhouse and a soil pH test kit are being used to grow plants for this spring season. The class is using seeds from NASA, herbs and strawberries. Students are able to watch the progress of these plants and learn more about soil and plant development from their homes.
Henderson SWCD applauds all our local teachers as they creatively navigate enhancing learning for our local students. For more information on how the Henderson Soil & Water Conservation District can support teachers or to register your class for a lesson or educational contest for next fall, please contact us at 828-697-4949.
CLASSROOM LESSONS
April Hoyt, the Henderson County Soil & Water Conservation District Education Coordinator, offers free educational lessons to students in Henderson County. These lessons are tailored to suit individual teacher's needs and are always interactive and engaging. April teaches students on all grade levels and ensures that her lessons are aligned with the NC Essential Standards.
News 13 WLOS recently documented one of these in-class lessons held at Sugarloaf Elementary School in Hendersonville, NC. April was teaching the students a lesson about the water cycle, which included a variety of activities such as a water cycle game, a radio theater, and an evaporation experiment. Enjoy the video and article by clicking this link.
For information on scheduling these and other activities for your classroom, please contact the Henderson County Soil & Water Conservation District at 828-697-4949.
KIDS IN THE CREEK
The Henderson County Soil & Water Conservation District would like to thank the thirteen partner organizations and various community members that volunteered their time to make Kids in the Creek with Rugby Middle School a success this year.
On April 9-11, 2019 thirteen partner organizations, along with community volunteers, hosted 300 eighth-graders from Rugby Middle School at Mills River Town Park to learn more about water quality. Students spent the days attending seven sessions related to water quality. Students had hands-on opportunities to survey the stream and collect aquatic life, properly identify macroinvertebrates found in the river, take stream measurements, learn more about the process of water filtration through the water cycle, learn about stormwater in Henderson County, learn about recycling and its effects on water quality, and even play a game where students were able to “be” aquatic life.
Great weather and a great host site allowed students to reinforce concepts discussed in the classroom. This event could not have been a success with the volunteer efforts of the Henderson County Soil & Water Conservation District, NC Wildlife Commission, City of Hendersonville, City of Asheville, Mills River Parks and Recreation, Division of Soil and Water, MountainTrue, Greenworks, Mills River Partnership, Farm Service Agency, Natural Resource Conservation Service, Riverlink, Rugby Middle School, and various community members who gave their time for this event.
For more information on introducing water quality activities into your classroom, please contact the Henderson County Soil & Water Conservation District at 828-697-4949 or any of our other partner organizations listed above!
