Outreach programs across the country provide school age children with an excellent opportunity to learn about topics such as the environment and the arts. These outreach programs are typically designed to stimulate academic achievement and reinforce and enhance classroom curriculum. The outreach programs often inspire creativity, promote cultural exchange, help create a desire to learn and enrich the overall educational experience. The programs also provide children with the opportunity for hands-on learning. This is important because many children learn best by doing instead of only reading.

The Auburn University Environmental Institute is the home to an outreach program that focuses on environmental science and art. Kay Stone is the program coordinator. The outreach program is called the Black Belt Environmental Science and Art Project. This program reaches out to underserved youth in the Black Belt region of Alabama. This region is home to Macon, Bullock, Wilcox and Monroe counties to name a few. The outreach program is designed to increase appreciation, knowledge and conservation of natural resources. It focuses on this region’s students as well as teachers. The students are in grades 5-8. The program provides the students and teachers with outdoor classroom field days.

When these field days are held, science modules and art modules are typically set up. Science modules have included trail walks, tree identification, pond ecology and reptiles and amphibians comparison. Art modules have included nature photography, farm life depiction and nature journals.

Within this outreach program, is the River of Words (ROW) Environmental Art and Poetry program. This is a national environmental art and poetry contest. It was created to promote watershed and natural resources awareness. The program also strives to promote literacy and the arts among students. Students have the chance to win recognition through the ROW completion.

Overall, outreach programs, such as the Black Belt Environmental Science and Art Project at Auburn University, are great ways to offer educational opportunities in non-traditional settings.









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