Environmental Literacy Internship (PAID)

The William S. Schmidt Outdoor Education Center is looking to support one Paid Intern/Chesapeake Conservation Corps Member (ages 18-25) from August 2020 – August 2021. The main focus of the position is supporting activities that promote community and school based sustainable practices in a variety of areas. The Corps Member will spend about 95% of their time outdoors/in the field in the fall, spring and summer, with a greater focus on office tasks and school outreach in the winter months.

●       Provide environmental literacy instruction to students, teachers, and adults who are part of Prince George’s County Public Schools. by leading a variety of environmental activities in order to enhance the core learning objectives. The Corps Member will mostly instruct work with small groups of students, mostly outdoors, teaching them about environmental topics that include watersheds, wildlife populations, forest ecology, as well as participating in environmental recreation, team building, and personal growth lessons using a high ropes and low ropes course. 

●       Support the Prince George’s County Environmental Literacy (ELIT) programs other programs provided by the Schmidt Center outreach educators. This will includes, but is not limited to the Growing Up Green (Kindergarten) arts integration program, the Sunfish and Students (3rd grade) program, the Wild Rice (7th grade) program, and high school programming including Envirothon competition training and high school student environmental leadership programs. 

o  Spring field restoration trips are conducted for the Wild Rice (7th grade) program with students planting wild rice grown in their classroom in local waterways.

●       Assist schools in recognizing and implementing “green” practices in their buildings such as designing and implementing habitat garden design in schoolyards as well as determining other student-driven green practices that can be implemented on school grounds.

●       Support professional development opportunities for teachers and other community members focusing on teaching environmental science and encouraging responsible environmental behavior

The primary goal is to implement the lesson with 3 visiting schools and approximately 200 students in the pilot of the module.

The secondary goal is to create pre and post activities that support the lesson which teachers can complete back at school.

Value to Corps Member: 

Serving such a large, diverse community allows for many different opportunities to learn and build skills. While the main focus of our work is educating about the environment, the Corps member will also have opportunities to learn how to:

·        create, update, and enhance environmental lessons

·        practice animal care (fish, turtles, and invertebrates)

·        assist students in conducting surveys of stream benthic macroinvertebrates and deer populations

·        plan, implement, and maintain habitat gardens

·        lead high ropes, team building, and problem solving activities

·        organize community events

·        present at professional development sessions 

·        participate in wetland restoration

·        empower student conservation leaders

·        maintain, and possibly create new, trails and outdoor classrooms

The Corps Member will be encouraged to attend local and state environmental engagement/ environmental education meetings and conferences like the Maryland Association of Environmental and Outdoor Educators (MAEOE) conference, the MAEOE Youth Summit, and Green Team Meetings with Keep Prince George’s County Beautiful. Formal training will be provided to the Corps Member for the low and high ropes courses including current safety standards and best practices. If the Corps Member has a particular interest in one environmental field, the Schmidt Center will support the Corps Member in attending events in that field. The Corps Member will also have the opportunity to work with many of our partners, like county and state parks, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, non-profit environmental organizations, and more. 

The Corps member may have career aspirations in teaching (formal or informal), public programming at a park, non-profit organization or outdoor education site (i.e. park ranger, naturalist, museum/zoo/aquarium educator, or outreach education), community engagement, or a related field.