Pickaway Soil & Water Conservation District offers conservation education programs.  Programs offered consist of Classroom Presentations, Experience Earth Day Camp, Soil & Water Stewardship Field Days, Envirothon Contests, and workshops.  We also offer camp scholarships, teacher workshop scholarships, 4-H Awards, and a lending library.

Classroom Presentations

Classroom presentations are 30-40 minutes in length and work well with one classroom.  Custom programs are available.  Most hands-on presentations support Science Academic Content Standards.  There is no charge for classroom presentations, but we do ask that you call several weeks in advance. Click on the class level for a listing of appropriate activities.

Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade

Call 477-1693 for all other grade levels.

Experience Earth Day Camp

"Experience Earth" is a Day Camp for children who have completed 3rd or 4th grade.  It takes place in June or July! A small fee is charged. Fliers are given to students during the last month of school. If your child does not attend a public school, you may contact our office for registration information: 477-1693.

Campers must live in Pickaway County or attend school in a Pickaway County School District and must have completed 3rd or 4th grade to attend Experience Earth Day Camp.

2008 Location and Date - Slate Run Metro Park - July 9-11

2008 FLIER

To Register, print and fill out the following forms (Registration, Emergency Medical, & Release/Waiver) and return them to the Pickaway SWCD Office with $15 Registration Fee ($20 if riding bus).

2008 REGISTRATION FORM

2008 EMERGENCY MEDICAL FORM

2008 RELEASE/WAIVER

2008 CODE OF CONDUCT Campers & Parents please read this document. Then sign the Release/Waiver to verify that you have read and understand and will follow the Code of Conduct.

VOLUNTEERS need to register also. Complete the Volunteer's box on your child's Registration Form. If you are not coming with a camper or there are more than one volunteer coming with a single camper, fill out a separate "camper's" registration form (leaving the camper section blank).

VOLUNTEERS must complete the following forms and return them with your registration.

VOLUNTEER EMERGENCY MEDICAL FORM

VOLUNTEER RELEASE/WAIVER

VOLUNTEER STANDARD OF BEHAVIOR Volunteers please read this document. Then sign the Volunteer Release/Waiver to verify that you have read and understand and will follow the Volunteer Standard of Behavior.

Soil & Water Stewardship Field Days

"Field Days" are outdoor programs held at elementary schools.  The students rotate to a number of different stations with presenters from agencies like Soil & Water, Ohio Department of Natural Resources-Divisions of Forestry, Natural Areas and Preserves, Wildlife, Geology, Recycling; Metro Parks and others. 

Soil & Water Stewardship Poster Contest

Pickaway SWCD sponsors a Poster Contest for 4th-6th Graders & 7th-9th Graders attending school in Pickaway County. Prizes are awarded to the 1st & 2nd place posters in each category. Additional Honorable Mention ribbons are presented. One Poster is selected to be displayed on a Billboard during the month of May.

2008 Theme - Water Is Life - Click here for more information about the theme. Then go to Stewardship & Education.

1st Place Grades 7-9 & Billboard Winner - Alina Hamner

2nd Place Grades 7-9 Leanna Calton

1st Place Grades 4-6 Tyler Reeser

2nd Place Grades 4-6 Adam Agosta

Workshops

"Workshops" can be provided for teachers who are interested in Project Food, Land & People, Project WET, Project WILD, and Project Learning Tree.

Project FLP is a collection of lesson plans and activities that focus on America's capacity to feed its citizens and others around the world.

Project WET is a collection of classroom-ready teaching aids that promote awareness, appreciation, knowledge, and stewardship of water resources.

Project WILD is an interdisciplinary conservation and environmental education program emphasizing wildlife.

Project Learning Tree:, Through hands-on, interdisciplinary activities, PLT provides students, in grades PreK-12, with opportunities to investigate environmental issues and encourages them to make informed, responsible decisions.

Scholarships

The Pickaway SWCD Board of Supervisors offers scholarships for the Ohio Federation of Soil & Water Conservation District's Education Workshop (for teachers).

2008 Workshop - August 5-7

Location - Sauder's Historic Village and Heritage Inn in Archbold - Fulton County

Theme - Wild Things, You Make My Heart Sing, For EE Learning

Scholarship Information: Pickaway SWCD will pay 1/2 of the cost of registration, lodging, and meals for 2 teachers. Teachers must teach in Pickaway County and must submit a "Letter of Interest" along with a registration questionnaire and copy of the Agenda (with session choices circled) by Monday, May 19, 2008 at 4:00 PM.

Click here to learn more about the workshop. 

Awards

Pickaway SWCD is a sponsor of the Pickaway County 4-H Program.

Pickaway SWCD also presents 2 Overall Natural Resources 4-H Project awards during the Pickaway County Fair. 1st place receives $25 Cash, a certificate and a Gold Medal. 2nd place receives $25 Cash, a certificate and a Silver Medal. To find out which 4-H projects qualify, contact the Pickaway County Extension Office at 740-474-7534.

Envirothon

Pickaway SWCD sponsors the Pickaway County Envirothon Teams. The Envirothon is a competitive, outdoor academic team event for high school students. Teams consist of 5 students, all from the same high school. The Envirothon tests students' knowledge of soils and land use, forestry, wildlife, aquatic ecology, and current environmental issues. Envirothon teams from Pickaway County participate in the Area 5 competition which consists of approximately 70 teams. Teams placing in the top four at the Area contests advance to the Ohio Envirothon. Twenty teams compete at the State contest for a chance to advance to the Canon Envirothon.

Visit the Canon Envirothon website at www.envirothon.org.

Area 5 Envirothon photos and results.

Lending Library

Lending Library items can be borrowed for 2 weeks at a time. We have videos, slide sets, activity guides, reference books, rock sets, Groundwater model, Enviroscape^®, Streamulator^®, Erosion Control Model, Forestry Trunk, Project Learning Tree Fire Trunk, and Stream Quality Monitoring Trunk.

LINKS

SOIL

http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/worms/index.html

http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/dlc-me/zoo/zdmain.html

http://www.ctic.purdue.edu/CTIC then click on Better Soil Recipe

http://www.wtamu.edu/~crobinson/DrDirt.htm

http://interactive.usask.ca/ski/agriculture/soils

WATERSHED

http://www.adopt-a-watershed.org

GEOLOGY

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/geosurvey/handson.htm

(For those of you who went on the Geology Field Trip at the 2003 OFSWCD Education Workshop at Deer Creek, following is the web site where you will find information on CONCRETIONS! There are underlines between geo & fact.) http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/geosurvey/geo_fact/geo_fact.htm

Photos of Concretions in Deer Creek, south of Williamsport, Ohio. Click on a picture to enlarge then use the back button to return. Photos provided by C. Randall Metzger, Pickaway SWCD Supervisor.

Stages Pond (kettle lake)