Western Carolina University – Highlands Biological Station Wins Outstanding Award for Environmental Education Program

The Environmental Educators of North Carolina awarded its 2021 Award for Outstanding Environmental Education Programs to a specialist at Highlands Biological Station, a facility at Western Carolina University, for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) awareness regional schools.

Patrick Brannon, Outreach Education Specialist at Highlands Biological Station, gives programs almost daily for schools and other community groups in western North Carolina. Many take place in a classroom setting, while others take place in remote locations in the Nantahala National Forest or along the Appalachian Trail.

EENC is a nonprofit membership group for professional development, networking, and the promotion of excellence among state environmental educators. The group offers resources, training, events and a certification program.

The award recognizes a program, education center, organization, partnership or educational system that exemplifies excellence in environmental education and was presented at the organization’s 30th annual conference, held from September 10 to 11 in Arden.

Highlands Biological Station offers more than 50 programs, ranging from ‘show and tell’ sessions for young people to immersive field labs for high school students, as well as workshops for informal and traditional educators. The courses are designed to meet the curriculum requirements of the State’s Essential Science Standards.

“For example, each fall the Highlands Biological Station helps run a field lab for eighth grade students at Summit Charter School in Cashiers, as part of their watershed study unit,†Brannon said. . “In this lab, students walk through sections of the TA and perform chemical tests on the water at various locations in the stream with their teacher. In addition, I teach them to conduct surveys of salamander species and macroinvertebrates as biological indicators of water quality.

The Highland Biological Station has also managed to adapt almost all of its programs into a virtual format during the pandemic, including field lessons. Although students cannot collect organisms on their own, they were shown specially created videos demonstrating the techniques. Teachers took advantage of the digital platform’s opportunities for the station to “visit†their classrooms, and as a result, annual service statistics have remained consistent with years of in-person programming. In 2020, the station served more than 10,000 students through more than 250 STEM outreach programs, 70 percent of which take place virtually, in 48 different schools in 13 regional counties. The addition of virtual programming also allowed the expansion to include schools as far as Raleigh, Durham and Fayetteville.

For more information on the Highlands Biological Station, including its nature center and botanical garden programs, visit highlandsbiological.org.