Royall elementary students visit Environmental Discovery Center

The Earth’s natural resources are a free way to teach students science and math through the hands-on activities at Lynches River County Park’s Environmental Discovery Center.

About 50 second-grade students from Royall Elementary School visited the 2,700-square-foot center Wednesday for a scavenger hunt to locate animals, and a canopy and nature walk.

Mandy Riley, a second-grade teacher at Royall, said the visit to the center allows her students to get outside of the classroom and have more interaction with the subjects studied in the classroom.

Riley said the first unit in science deals with animals and the scavenger hunt provides the right activity for her students.

During the scavenger hunt, students found cards with pictures of animals found outside in nature. The students then went back into the center to classify the animals according to their physical characteristics. The group constructed a bar graph to represent their findings.

Students also experienced nature from a bird’s eye view from the Tree Top Canopy.

The purpose of the center is to encourage people to become naturalists as a means to stimulate lifelong learning, according to the center’s Web site, http://www.lynchesriverpark.com.

“Children don’t get that time to spend outdoors,” Terasa Young, supervisor of the discovery center, said. “I hope that they learn that we need to protect our natural resources so that they will be here for their children and (beyond) and just to enjoy what mother nature has for us.

“Technology is great, but going outside (allows them to) use their imagination and creativity,” she said.

Sterling Sadler, commissioner of the Florence County Soil and Water Conservation District, said there have been more than 11,000 visitors to the center since its opening in February.

Sadler said the center is a wonderful place to encourage young people to become one with nature.

“We have a terrible disconnect between young (people) and nature today,” she said. “We want to make them aware that they need to become caretakers of our natural resources.

“Through exhibits in the building and what they will find out in nature, we hope they will want to become the next generation of caretakers.”

All programs offered at the center are free and are correlated with the state’s science standards. To schedule a visit or learn more about the center, call (843) 389-0550.