Lafayette County offers summer environmental workshop for teachers

The Lafayette County Soil & Water Conservation District is putting a practical tool in teachers’ hands: four days of environmental lessons built around the ABC’s of Environmental Education, with classroom-ready topics that range from composting and recycling to water quality, soil health and nonpoint source pollution. The workshop is aimed at K-12 educators who want continuing education units, and the reservation fee is $15. It will run June 8-11 from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Johnny Morgan’s Shop, 27 County Road 299 in Oxford, with registration open through May 30 and Jimmie Carol Watts listed as the district contact at 662-234-8701 ext. 3.

The local payoff is straightforward: a teacher who leaves with lessons on anti-litter, Adopt-A-Stream, beekeeping, bird conservation, forestry-tree ID, wildlife management and other hands-on topics can turn one workshop into months of instruction for an entire classroom. The mix of sponsors, including Itawamba Community College, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Mississippi Soil & Water Conservation Commission, North Central Mississippi RC&D Council and MSU Lafayette County Extension Service, keeps the training tied to public education and conservation partners rather than a standalone private event.

The state commission says its education outreach reaches far beyond Lafayette County. In fiscal year 2019, Mississippi Soil and Water Conservation Commission staff assisted with 210 field days, workshops, seminars and other conservation activities, reaching 44,357 participants. The commission also says it supports local districts with training and education, and its public teaching tools include Sam E. Soil, the Soil Tunnel, the Enviroscape and The Incredible Journey.

That model matches the kind of hands-on conservation training the Mississippi Forestry Association uses in its Teachers Conservation Workshops, where educators learn practical techniques they can bring back to classrooms and student projects and, by the end, may be certified to use Project Learning Tree materials. For Lafayette County, the real measure of value will be whether teachers use this summer training to build habits around cleaner streams, healthier soil and better stewardship in local schools, not just to collect CEUs.