CCUA & the BGreen Partnership

Columbia Public Schools are playing a strong leadership role in hands-on science education.  They are using community partnerships to connect their 4th and 5th graders with interesting outdoor learning environments.  Over the past two years students have worked with the Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture at the Urban Farm (1209 Smith Street) as well as the City of Columbia Dept. of Parks and Recreation (3M wetland along MKT trail) to get out and explore the local urban ecosystem.  Students have also worked at their schools to identify an environmental problem, follow the steps of the scientific method, and then create experiments to prove or disprove their hypotheses.

http://youtu.be/RTkITID7Wm4

The ShowMe Nature Student Research Symposium, held Saturday, April 26th, was the culminating experience for this series of experiments.  Students shared the results of their inquiries with the public to demonstrate what is learned when students leave the classroom to explore the natural world around them.

In this video, Heather Gillich, CCUA's education and volunteer coordinator, explains the event.

For examples of student presentations, check out the attached event pamphlet.