EPA-funded sustainability project at Maryville College reaches 1,200 local students
Dec. 18, 2023
Nearly 1,200 East Tennessee students have benefitted from the effort of Maryville College faculty and students who have spent the past year using grant money from the Environmental Protection Agency to design, build, and deliver sustainability gift boxes to local fourth-graders.
The grant — officially titled the “Maryville College Great Smokies Sustainability Project: Out Of The Box Sustainability” Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Education Region 4 Grant (MC-EPA-EE) — sets MC students and faculty up for success. The true ingenuity stems from the minds of MC. Adrienne Schwarte, professor of design and coordinator of the Sustainability Studies minor, serves as principal investigator of the program with Dr. Mark O’Gorman, professor of political science and coordinator of the Environmental Studies program.
In November 2022, four student interns were hired on as fellows for the project: Catelee “Crow” Crow ’24, a senior Outdoor Studies and Tourism major; Jewell West ’25, a junior Environmental Studies major; Lacey Hunter ’24, a senior Political Science major; and Madeline Walker ’24, a senior Environmental Science major.
“We all work together to put together each box and all of the different pieces to make it easier for teachers, as well as create and plan every activity,” Crow said.
Since then, the team has completed seven Community Environmental Education (CEE) events and delivered two rounds of boxes to local fourth-grade teachers. CEE events allow participating fellows to present an activity through face-to-face contact with students and their family members. Information shared teaches students and parents about environmental issues, and parents are encouraged to complete surveys regarding the material.
“The MC student fellows prepare boxes with education materials that we deliver to fourth-grade classrooms, and the teachers in those rooms present the materials — none of us are there,” O’Gorman said. “So the CEE events allow direct environmental education between the fellows and the students.”
The team has reached around 1,200 students between both methods of communication within the year, and they haven’t stopped yet. They have visited all five schools they are partnered with: Loudon Elementary, Lenoir City Intermediate/Middle School, Alcoa Intermediate School and Eagleton Elementary and Carpenters Elementary School in Maryville.
“Topics that have been covered are energy consumption and conservation, water quality, air quality, recycling, composting, native species and plants, the health of bees, and soil quality (the next box that is almost complete),” Schwarte said.
On Nov. 16, the team held a CEE event at Alcoa Intermediate School to teach students and their parents about energy conservation during the holidays.
“This event stood out because of just how active it was — it gets students immediately engaged, having to contemplate how they use items and how there are more energy-efficient ways they can use them in their everyday life!” Schwarte said.
Fellows designed a box on soil quality to deliver to fourth graders on Nov. 30. They participated in a Holiday CEE Day on Dec. 14 as part of a “Holiday in the Halls” event at Loudon Elementary School.
Surveys from adults who attend CEE events with their children, surveys from teachers who have implemented these sustainability boxes in their classrooms, and more data collection at each event so far “supports that individuals feel engaged in the activities, that the activities promote linking and transferring of ideas, and that skills and confidence are built in learning through hands-on activities,” Schwarte added.
The project will continue into the Spring 2024 semester, inspiring students to do “more or a lot more to help their community solve the environmental issues described,” according to Schwarte.
