Charleston County Fifth and Sixth Graders Learn about "Tracking Trash" at the College of Charleston

Approximately 80 fifth- and sixth-graders from the Charleston County School District (CCSD) will be visiting the College of Charleston campus on December 13 from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. to learn more about plastics and biodegradable materials as part of the College’s Literacy Outreach Initiative (LOI). These students have been reading “Tracking Trash” by Loree Griffin Burns and will visit C of C labs to participate activities related to the book.

Thirty Honors College freshmen will help students from Mitchell Elementary and Memminger Elementary learn how to use microscopes and fluorescent microscopes at the School of Sciences and Mathematics. A representative from the Charleston Water System will also speak about the effects of plastics on water quality. The kids will get hands-on experience in determining the difference between biodegradable and non-biodegradable packing materials.

The College visit builds on LOI’s 2013 school outreach curriculum, which discusses the problem of plastic floating in the ocean and its effect on wildlife and the environment.

“We’re able to expose sixth graders to exciting science through a grant from the National Science Foundation,” said Wendy Cory, associate chemistry professor. “Getting young students in laboratories to work with their hands lends so much more dimension to what they learn in the classroom.”

LOI strives to inspire schoolchildren to love reading and to understand that literacy skills are crucial to educational achievement through its school outreach and campus visits. Further, LOI encourages setting long-range academic goals like attending and graduating from college.

“We’re thrilled to have coordinate visits like this for three years straight now,” Dean of the Honors College Trisha Folds-Bennett said. “Some of the fourth graders we started with are on their third book now as sixth-graders. Our Honors College sophomores and juniors who worked with CCSD students in the past have continued to branch out into the community since their experience with LOI.”

The December 2013 visit marks the third LOI-CCSD student visit at the College. The Literacy Outreach Initiative is a collaborative project of the Honors College, the School of Sciences and Mathematics, the Office of Civic Engagement, the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi and The College Reads! This project is funded thanks to the generosity of the National Collegiate Honor Council and the National Science Foundation (grant CBET- 1236266) as well as The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Undergraduate Science Education Program at the College of Charleston.

For more information, contact Charlie Rosemond, LOI project manager and AmeriCorps*VISTA at loi@cofc.edu.