Education/Outreach Programs

Organized and implemented by CCSWCD Soil Technician Nina Hanson and the following partner organizations:

North Coffee Elementary School

North Coffee calls its’ afterschool program Excellence. The Con-Ed program here meets once a month and rotates through grades K-5. I really enjoy finding creative and fun ways to communicate the “excellent” responsibility of caring for our resources with these “Excellence” students. They are a great group of kids that are always eager to learn.

College Street Elementary School

This afterschool program runs until 6pm, Monday through Friday. Throughout the school year and during their summer program, there are 2 educational projects managed within Journey. One is a conservation education program, Con-Ed, that focuses on teaching K-5 students about our soil, water, wildlife, and forest resources. Many of the lesson activities are interactive and hands-on and, whenever possible, done outdoors. The second Journey project is the garden club, The Gardenators. The 4th and 5th graders in this program learn how to grow food in raised beds, both in the spring/summer and fall/winter. The garden area is quickly turning into an outdoor classroom, featuring a composting station, native pollinator bed, and bird and monarch habitat areas. The Gardenators not only raise veggies, but also learn how to turn their freshly harvested veggies onto fresh, healthy meals.

We made the local news! read about it here

Kingwood Arms

The Nature & Wildlife club is comprised of senior and special need adults living at the Kingwood Arms facility. The residents meet monthly or bi-monthly and we cover a variety of wildlife and resource lessons. The club also performs hands-on activities pertaining to our lesson topics. Examples of lessons and activities include leaf/ tree identification, planting a pollinator garden, bird observation, animal track identification, and field trips to local parks and farms.

Community Workshops

Coffee County Extension Agent, Amy Prince, is another partner of ours that delivers seasonal (quarterly) lawn and garden-type workshops. We aim to provide Coffee County residents with answers to common agricultural and horticultural questions. We also like to challenge folks to implement new practices and skills. The Coffee County Manchester Library often hosts the informational sessions, and we then try to teach a field activity at a local farm. We will soon be delivering the same workshop information at the Coffee County Tullahoma Library branch.