ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
1
William Schmidt Outdoor Education / MD Green Center Application Number 5 / March 1, 2024
2
One Page Summary
3
Describe the center's green culture and share examples of sustainable changes that the center has made to become greener.
4
Link to our Program Brochure
5
Write the one page summary in the box below.
6
The William S. Schmidt Outdoor Education Center (Schmidt Center or Camp Schmidt) of Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) has long been a leader in outdoor and environmental education since its inception in 1971. In 2003, the Schmidt Center began the journey of promoting and sustaining the goals of the Maryland Green Center program receiving its first certification in 2005. Over the last nineteen years, there have been many changes at the center, but supporting outdoor and environmental initiatives through teachers and students has always been a priority. A culture of environmental stewardship takes root with the Schmidt Center’s legacy program of serving 5th graders during a residential trip to the Schmidt Center. The core values of creating an appreciation of the outdoors as well as augmenting a greater awareness of environmental responsibility enables students to make informed decisions that support a sustainable and greener planet. During the last nineteen years, the Schmidt Center continues to include programming on the Schmidt Center campus for first graders and school site programming for kindergartners, third graders, and seventh grade students. Since our last application we have also started programming for eighth grade and we are currently piloting programming for fourth grade. At the high school level, the Schmidt Center supports three schools that have an Environmental, Agricultural, Natural Resources pathway, and at least one additional school plans to join this group in the next school year. This pathway supports students who have interests in natural resource management and/or agricultural sciences. We also launched a high school level MWEE curriculum in the 23-24 school year, run through the Biogeochemical Systems course and in partnership with the Anacostia Watershed Society’s Mussel Power (mussels in the classroom) program. The Schmidt Center has greatly expanded its support of the Envirothon with training and the County competition occurring on our campus. Beyond school programs, the Schmidt Center has worked to integrate environmental literacy into the curriculum of various subjects across the grade levels. Through increased programming and curriculum integration, teacher professional development has been an area of growth as well. The Schmidt Center has taken the position that to successfully “green” the school system a teacher-centered approach is the best strategy. Over the last nineteen years, the Schmidt Center has offered trainings for teachers to expand their knowledge and add lessons to their teaching toolbox which support Environmental Literacy. The Schmidt Center has also partnered with environmental education providers to offer additional trainings which give teachers the opportunity to expand their depth of knowledge and gain school partners that support students.
An enhanced emphasis on Maryland Green School certification has been a more recent outreach component of the Schmidt Center. This has been part of a greater strategy to work with teachers and students at the school level. By creating a green culture in schools through the MD Green School certification process, a meaningful shift is underway that supports sustainable behavior at all levels of the school system.
In short the Schmidt Center has created a green culture throughout the school district by developing environmental literacy through teacher development, student engagement, and growing MD Green Schools.
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100