Summary of Green Culture
Swan Meadow School is a unique public school located in Garrett County; Maryland’s westernmost county. We have 36 students enrolled in grades one through eight and 7 staff members. We have three classrooms: grades one and two, taught by the principal; grades three through five, and grades six through eight. The majority of our students are Amish and Mennonite from the rural, agrarian community of Pleasant Valley, just south of Oakland, Maryland. Swan Meadow achieved Green School status in 2006 and was recertified in 2010. Our students learn how to be Citizen Scientists.
Swan Meadow has been dedicated to environmental education and projects since 1995, when we participated in the Chesapeake Bay School Reforestation Project in conjunction with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. With this partnership we established our Small Animal Sanctuary. In 2002 we applied and obtained our first grants through the Chesapeake Bay Trust and the Maryland Ornithological Society. These projects laid the groundwork for environmental projects in our school community. Our students spearheaded a campaign to adopt a county bird and wildflower, and as a result, Garrett County officially adopted the Eastern Bluebird and the Wild Columbine in May 2005. In 2006 we became an active member of Partners in Ecology and Restoration of Schoolyards (PIERS), and received another CBT grant. We currently maintain a native wildflower rain garden, a native wildflower meadow, a bird and butterfly garden, birdhouse gourd raised bed garden, and a vegetable garden.
Key projects for which our school provides ongoing support are vermicomposting with shredded paper and discarded lettuce, a paper recycling project, and participation in the Monarch Watch tagging program, though we did not tag any Monarchs this year. Instead we encouraged students to leave in the wild the few Monarchs found locally. Third through fifth graders researched factors leading to the decline of Monarch Butterflies, with help from our PIERS partner. Our former principal traveled to Mexico’s Monarch sanctuaries in February 2011 with a community partner, facilitating our communication with the Sierra Chinqua School, which is serving as a steward of the Sierra Chinqua Monarch Sanctuary.
Since our recertification in 2010, we have continued to integrate environmental education in our instruction with the following top five programs: publication of Our Big Schoolyard Magazine, creation of a school vegetable garden, monitoring of Cherry Creek water quality, broadening of Spring Sprucing Day, and reduction of classroom trash with Waste Watchers. Our staff also collaborated with colleagues to produce lessons meeting new Environmental Literacy Standards at the primary and middle school levels for the Garrett County Board of Education, published in October 2011.
New initiatives that will be reported in our next recertification include an apple orchard, which will be planted this spring with funds from a CBT Schoolshed Grant, requested by the sixth through eighth grade class. We are working with community partners to plant the orchard parallel to nearby Cherry Creek as a buffer for runoff between our school and the creek. We will also have completed the certification process for our Monarch Waystation, initiated by the third through fifth grade class, for which we hope to report the return of much greater numbers of Monarchs to our community. Our first through eighth grade students will all help grow our vegetable garden, to which we may add herbs! Our school community lives its commitment to environmental education every day, seeking new ways to improve our stewardship of our environment.
Swan Meadow has been dedicated to environmental education and projects since 1995, when we participated in the Chesapeake Bay School Reforestation Project in conjunction with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. With this partnership we established our Small Animal Sanctuary. In 2002 we applied and obtained our first grants through the Chesapeake Bay Trust and the Maryland Ornithological Society. These projects laid the groundwork for environmental projects in our school community. Our students spearheaded a campaign to adopt a county bird and wildflower, and as a result, Garrett County officially adopted the Eastern Bluebird and the Wild Columbine in May 2005. In 2006 we became an active member of Partners in Ecology and Restoration of Schoolyards (PIERS), and received another CBT grant. We currently maintain a native wildflower rain garden, a native wildflower meadow, a bird and butterfly garden, birdhouse gourd raised bed garden, and a vegetable garden.
Key projects for which our school provides ongoing support are vermicomposting with shredded paper and discarded lettuce, a paper recycling project, and participation in the Monarch Watch tagging program, though we did not tag any Monarchs this year. Instead we encouraged students to leave in the wild the few Monarchs found locally. Third through fifth graders researched factors leading to the decline of Monarch Butterflies, with help from our PIERS partner. Our former principal traveled to Mexico’s Monarch sanctuaries in February 2011 with a community partner, facilitating our communication with the Sierra Chinqua School, which is serving as a steward of the Sierra Chinqua Monarch Sanctuary.
Since our recertification in 2010, we have continued to integrate environmental education in our instruction with the following top five programs: publication of Our Big Schoolyard Magazine, creation of a school vegetable garden, monitoring of Cherry Creek water quality, broadening of Spring Sprucing Day, and reduction of classroom trash with Waste Watchers. Our staff also collaborated with colleagues to produce lessons meeting new Environmental Literacy Standards at the primary and middle school levels for the Garrett County Board of Education, published in October 2011.
New initiatives that will be reported in our next recertification include an apple orchard, which will be planted this spring with funds from a CBT Schoolshed Grant, requested by the sixth through eighth grade class. We are working with community partners to plant the orchard parallel to nearby Cherry Creek as a buffer for runoff between our school and the creek. We will also have completed the certification process for our Monarch Waystation, initiated by the third through fifth grade class, for which we hope to report the return of much greater numbers of Monarchs to our community. Our first through eighth grade students will all help grow our vegetable garden, to which we may add herbs! Our school community lives its commitment to environmental education every day, seeking new ways to improve our stewardship of our environment.