Birmingham-Southern College launches new initiative with 11 local schools

The Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham has awarded Birmingham-Southern College’s (BSC) Southern Environmental Center a $60,000 grant to support its new Birmingham Urban Watershed STEMM Initiative (BUWSI). Read on to learn more about the initiative and how it supports Birmingham City Schools.

Modeled after a successful program in Mobile

The new BUWSI program is modeled after BSC’s award-winning STEMMing The Tide initiative, a supplemental educational program that aims to help a school in Mobile’s Africatown community struggling with science and math scores.

“The program has three components: an academic side provided by faculty from Birmingham-Southern College and the University of Montevallo; a local nonprofit side that includes groups like the Alabama Coastal Foundation and the Mobile Baykeeper; and an educator side provided by the teachers working with these students. STEMMing The Tide brings these components together and asks, ‘How can we influse locally-relevant environmental justice and climate change concepts into new teaching modules that will both empower teacher and interest students?'”

Roald Hazelhoff, Executive Director, Southern Environmental Center at Birmingham-Southern College

Now in its second year, the STEMMing The Tide initiative has been successful in getting students interested in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math and Medicine).

“One of the projects we’ve installed in their science lab is an aquaponics system, which is essentially a large fish tank where the fish waste is used to fertilize plants in the next section. Not only is it soothing for the kids—they love getting to look at fish in the classroom—but the aquaponics sytem is helping them make a connection with agriculture at an early age. And it has an additional benefit—the school just had their first annual fish fry!”

Roald Hazelhoff, Executive Director, Southern Environmental Center at Birmingham-Southern College

A grant for the new Birmingham Urban Watershed STEMM Initiative

Building off the success of the program in Mobile, BSC’s Southern Environmental Center launched the Birmingham Urban Watershed STEMM Initiative (BUWSI) to incorporate environmental justice & climate change themes into science modules for 11 Birmingham City schools located within the Village Creek watershed, including:

• Avondale K-5
• Barrett K-5
• Hayes K-8
• Norwood K-5
• Robinson K-5
• Bush Hills STEAM Academy
• Hudson K-8
• Ossie Ware Mitchell
• Carver High School
• Jackson-Olin High School
• Woodlawn High School

Like the STEMMing The Tide initiative, the BUWSI utilizes a community of practice (COP) approach to collectively design the teaching modules, with input from government agencies, local nonprofits, BSC faculty and local school teachers. For example, BUWSI has worked with ¡HICA!, the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama to design a bilingual component to the initiative.

With the support of the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham’s $60,000 grant—as well as support from the Board of Education and proceeds from Darter Fest and from Darter Scramble—the BUWSI will offer:

• BSC faculty and students will work on-site with schools in the Village Creek watershed
• Workshops with teachers and community partners to introduce the teaching modules in the Summer
• Field trips to the Southern Environmental Center’s award-winning Interactive Museum at Birmingham-Southern College
• And more

“The BUWSI will allow for a new group of students to come to and learn from the Interactive Museum. In the past, we’ve only had a few of these schools at the center because the others couldn’t afford it. The Community Foundation’s grant is a huge door opener, because it allows these 11 schools to access this kind of program and field trip.”

Roald Hazelhoff, Executive Director, Southern Environmental Center at Birmingham-Southern College

Excited to see this new program kick off in Birmingham? Tag us @bhamnow to let us know!