Opportunities in Environmental Science
Spring / Summer / Fall - 2019
We want everyone to know that there will be multiple opportunities to collaborate with STEM School Highland Ranch, Douglas County Conservation District, CALF at the Lowell Ranch, and rural schools. This will be an ongoing project for students of all ages. Please check back regularly on THE SYNK Upcoming Collaborations.
Special thanks to our presenter, Bill Vanderpoel from the Douglas County Conservation District.
In organically collaborating with Douglas County Conservation District Personnel via THE SYNK, we have started the first steps in creating an amazing 7th grade project-based learning module that connects to our real world natural and social environments. A portion of STEM’s 7th grade science students will be given the opportunity to submit proposals on how best to reintroduce native species of plants to Douglas Country’s Plum Creek watershed.
Students will have to tackle the complex and hard dilemma of what species to plant, how to plant, species density, as well as make sure that any native species would not be harmful for local animal grazing. The end proposal will be submitted to Douglas County Conservation District for evaluation and vesting. It is hopeful that a few proposals will be selected for actual implementation, thereby giving students the wonderful opportunity to apply scientific experimentation to real world application to better our local natural communities from the roots, to STEM, to fruition. - Dr. Neely Clapp (STEM School Highlands Ranch science teacher)
About the Douglas County Conservation District
The Douglas County Conservation District is helping people help the land by promoting projects through education to further the long-term sustainable use of natural resources balancing the needs of agriculture and urban growth. The district is governed by a Board of seven Supervisors who are volunteers.
We work with all District residents to help them discover the value of conservation as it relates to their profits, their lives and their children’s future.
To achieve these goals, we work closely with landowners to assist in recommending conservation practices such as windbreaks including specific seedling tree species selection, grass seed plantings to stop erosion, proper grazing management, controlling noxious weeds, and providing products to insure successful plantings. In some cases financial assistance may be available to help achieve your conservation goals. We also conduct several public seminars on various topics.
The Douglas County Conservation District is helping people help the land by promoting projects through education to further the long-term sustainable use of natural resources balancing the needs of agriculture and urban growth. The district is governed by a Board of seven Supervisors who are volunteers.
We work with all District residents to help them discover the value of conservation as it relates to their profits, their lives and their children’s future.
To achieve these goals, we work closely with landowners to assist in recommending conservation practices such as windbreaks including specific seedling tree species selection, grass seed plantings to stop erosion, proper grazing management, controlling noxious weeds, and providing products to insure successful plantings. In some cases financial assistance may be available to help achieve your conservation goals. We also conduct several public seminars on various topics.
We work closely with educators and children to teach our young people about conservation. We offer scholarships for High School students to attend Conservation “Camp Rocky” as well as College tuition scholarships to students pursuing a career in an agricultural related field, and adopt classrooms which provide conservation curriculum materials to schools.
Check out Bill’s work with Lone Star School, Arickaree and STEM School Highlands Ranch as they flew drones to begin CALF at the Lowell Ranch stream restoration. LINK