Author: Stephanie Bishop

Although it’s one of the coldest months of the year, elementary student scientists from across Thurston County have been working diligently to collect water quality data from local watersheds! 5^th grade students from Lakes and Pioneer Elementary Schools traveled to Pioneer Park and Squaxin Park this month to explore their local waterways, practice native plant identification, and analyze water quality data from tests that they conducted. 

With our traditional water quality monitoring season wrapping up, students are getting ready to present their class’s water quality data during the 30^th Annual Student GREEN Congress at The Evergreen State College! We’re looking forward to having the first in-person GREEN Congress since 2019. Teams of 4^th-8^th grade student delegates have begun working on their presentations for the GREEN Congress State of the Rivers Sessions, where the teams will work together to compare their water quality data and create action plans to reinforce the health of their local aquatic ecosystems. We also have more workshop offerings than ever this year, and are excited to collaborate with new community partners from across Washington! The event will take place on March 23rd – check the Student GREEN Congress webpage here for more information.

At the end of the month, North Thurston School District high school students began their round of biology field trips at Tolmie State Park, Squaxin Park, and Meyer’s Point Field Station. These field trips are a great opportunity for students to build upon the curriculum they learn in the classroom through hands-on outdoor experiences and to be introduced to future career possibilities in STEM. Stay tuned for updates in March!

Here at South Sound GREEN, we’re starting the year with lots of exciting events and teamwork with our community partners! Students from Woodland Elementary and Lacey Elementary were able to gain hands-on experience with water quality testing and stream bug identification at Long Lake Park and Woodland Creek Community Park. During these field trips, the students collected real data that they will use to analyze the water quality in their local watersheds. 

Students like these will soon have the opportunity to share their data at our Student GREEN Congress event! Congress will be held on March 23rd at The Evergreen State College in collaboration with The Nisqually River Education Project and Chehalis Basin Education Consortium. This is our biggest annual event, and we can’t wait to host it in-person again for the first time in three years! Check out the Student GREEN Congress webpage here for more information.

This month, the Teens in Thurston (TnT) high school volunteer group event took place at GRuB (Garden-Raised Bounty). High schoolers from across Thurston school districts worked together to remove invasive Himalayan blackberries from GRuB’s nature trail. In February, the TnT volunteer group will be assisting the Center for Natural Lands Management with restoring native prairie lands by creating a bonfire at a former Christmas tree farm! Are you a high school student interested in participating in conservation and sustainability activities and gaining community service hours? Sign up for email updates about TnT events using this form!

Another upcoming opportunity for high school students to engage with environmental science is the 2023 South Puget Sound Regional Envirothon! The competition will take place on April 25th at Squaxin Park in Olympia, WA. Competition participants and volunteers can register for the event here. If you have any questions, or would like more information, you can contact Sam Nadell at snadell@thurstoncd.com.

December might not seem like field trip season, but at SSG we’re excited to teach students at any time of year! With only a few weeks available in December before winter break, we managed to squeeze in a number of exciting programs, working with Horizons Elementary and Komachin Middle schools for water quality testing and joining Tumwater High and Nisqually Middle schools out at McLane Creek for some chum salmon spawning trips! Overall, it was a great end to a fantastic year for us, and one that saw students returning to in-person field experiences for the first time since the winter of 2020.

As another year wraps up for us at South Sound GREEN, we wanted to give a huge THANK YOU to everyone who participated or volunteered this year! We had nearly 6,000 student interactions in 2022, which was only possible due to the incredibly hard work by our community partners, school administrators, and teachers! And we can’t forget our students either – thank you for your effort and excitement! We couldn’t do it without you!

We have a lot of exciting things upcoming in 2023, most notably the return of Student GREEN Congress at the Evergreen State College! We can’t wait to host our biggest annual event in-person again, and we’ll be celebrating our 30^th Congress event alongside the Nisqually River Education Project and Chehalis Basin Education Consortium. Reach out or stay in touch if you’d like to be kept updated on Congress, the South Puget Sound Regional Envirothon competition, the Teens in Thurston (TnT) volunteer group, or any other SSG programs in the new year!