Author: Stephanie Bishop

The new school year is right around the corner, which means South Sound GREEN is getting ready for another year of outdoor field experiences! While inventorying supplies and editing curriculum may not be the most exciting tasks, it sets us up for success when our schedule gets busy with water quality testing. This year we’re looking forward to working with new teacher participants and implementing some updates to our long-standing programs! If you are a Thurston County teacher who is interested in water quality testing, salmon spawning field trips, or any other SSG field experience, please reach out to Sam Nadell at snadell@thurstoncd.com for information. 

Even in August, there are still education programs to help with! We joined up with Northwest Youth Corps at a Capitol Land Trust site for a stream bug lesson, and also assisted with the Nisqually Reach Nature Center’s Science Adventure Camp out at Mount Rainier! We’ve been meeting with teachers as well, setting up North Thurston 5th grade teachers for success in their Watershed Explorers curriculum. It’s been a great summer and we’re looking forward to a great 2023-2024 school year!

Summer is a great opportunity for us at SSG to have a reset before the upcoming school year – but that doesn’t mean we can’t fit in a few programs as well! This month we helped out with the Tumwater School District’s summer STREAMS (Science, Technology, Reading, Engineering, Art, Math, Service/Stewardships) program for middle school students, providing classroom and field lessons for their “One Water” week-long track. We don’t typically get to bring students out on field trips during the summer, so it’s always a treat when we get the chance! We’ve also been busy networking with marine and environmental educators from across the country (and world!) at the National Marine Educators Association Conference, finding ways to incorporate unique, global ideas into our local lessons. 

With the school year coming up fast, now is a great time to reach out if you’re interested in becoming a South Sound GREEN volunteer! If you have any experience in education, water quality, intertidal biology, salmon, or other related fields, please reach out to Sam at snadell@thurstoncd.com with the subject line “SSG Volunteer Interest – YOUR NAME”. We’re hoping to have some extra help in the form of a Fall Education Intern (applications are still open for that!) but we’re also always on the lookout for new, energetic volunteers!

The 2022-2023 school year has just wrapped up, and what an exciting year it was! Over 5,500 students participated in South Sound GREEN programming this year, starting with Water Quality Monitoring back in October and ending with Eye On Nature field trips at the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge a few weeks ago. We were thrilled to meet and collaborate with new teachers, community partners, and volunteers who worked with us to make all of this possible. Thank you to everybody who helped us bring outdoor experiences and watershed education to local students this year!

We wrapped up June with one of our favorite annual professional development events – Summer Institute for Teachers! This year’s theme was Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and we were so grateful to have speakers from the Nisqually and Squaxin tribes, as well as other environmental agencies and tribal members, share some of their stories and environmental expertise with local educators. After a long school year of teaching, it’s great to have an opportunity for our amazing teachers to become students for a few days!

We’re looking forward to a summer of rejuvenation and preparation for the next school year. South Sound GREEN is also looking to hire a fall intern, so if you’re interested or know of any interested parties, you can find more information here.