Project Examples
Student Environmental Action Showcase
Cindy chats with super SEAS supporter, state delegate Ken Plum
Since its inception, Dr. Cindy Smith and PEREC have collaborated with NovaOutSide to deliver the finest youth environmental networking event in Virginia, the Student Environmental Action Showcase. SEAS brings these students together to amplify youth voice in environmental problem-solving, and provides them opportunities to network with elected officials and natural resource agencies.
Community Marine Debris Prevention
As Principal Investigator of the NOAA funded project, A Community Approach to Reducing Single-Use Plastic Beverage Bottles, Cindy gathered community partners to collaboratively empower high school students to develop a community-based social marketing campaign designed to eliminate the use of disposable drink bottles in the schools. The project will raise awareness of and connect participants to the ecological impacts of marine debris, expand participation in cleanup efforts, and change behaviors related to disposable water bottles.
“Dr. Smith has been an essential resource for our environmental literacy efforts at Patriot High School. As a component of environmental literacy, Patriot worked toward the creation of an outdoor classroom at our natural pond on campus. With assistance and guidance from Dr. Smith, we created pollinator gardens and other areas that would be useful in teaching students about environmental concepts like symbiosis, ecosystem services, the importance of nutrient recycling, why invasive species are harmful, and just simply the joy of learning more about their environment. Dr. Smith helped with the interactive opening of the Patriot Pond outdoor classroom (@PatriotPond) while students and school officials got to experience the opportunities that outdoor education has to offer. One student volunteer, in particular, was led to continue her environmental education, encouraged in her excitement to run for President of our environmental conservation organization (ECO club), join a local student climate action network, subsequently chosen to be a member of the Superintendent's Advisory Council on Sustainability, and is now headed to university to continue her environmental science studies. This is just one example of how Dr. Smith's outreach changes lives. We have been lucky to work with her.
— Melinda Landry, Patriot High School AP Environmental Science
Community partners include Keep Prince William Beautiful, Prince William(PW) Soil and Water Conservation District, PW County Public Works, Northern Virginia Regional Commission and PW County Public Schools.
Because of COVID building restrictions, Cindy managed the transition of the in-person high school teacher and student training workshops into a virtual course. She directed the design and scripting of a video series introducing participants to water quality research at Mason’s Potomac Science Center and the potential marine debris impacts to fish, invertebrates and plankton.
Links to all six videos are down below:
Project Overview
Identifying Larval Fish
Collecting Fish Larvae
Collecting Plankton From a Pond
How to Sort Fish from a sample
PEREC Fish Collection
Regional and State wide project examples
As Potomac Science Center sits on both the Potomac Heritage and the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Heritage Trails, Dr. Smith is actively engaged with aspiration efforts of the Greater Prince William Trail Coalition.
Dr. Smith sits on the Virginia Turfgrass Council’s legislative committee. She was featured the the July/Aug 2020 Edition of Journal of the Virginia Turfgrass Council.
PEREC Education Programs
PEREC’s K-12 educational initiatives include teaching workshops and award winning educational programs which have provided Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences for over 60,000 students in Prince William County and 40,000 students in Fairfax County.
A program qualifies as a meaningful watershed experience when it:
is investigative or project oriented
is an integral part of the instructional program
is part of a sustained activity
considers the watershed as a system
is enhanced by NOAA products, services, or personnel, where appropriate
Awards
In 2012, the Virginia Mathematics & Science Coalition recognized Prince William County’s From the Mountains to the Estuary: From the Schoolyards to the Bay award as a “Program That Works“, an award that recognizes effective student and teacher educational programs.
In 2011, the Chesapeake Bay Education Partners (which includes PEREC) won Prince William County’s Business Partnership Award.
As a passionate advocate of building biodiversity through pollinator habitat plantings, Dr. Smith is quite proud of her role in the VTC Environmental Institute’s state-wide seed packet initiative