What are Eco Ed Camps?

Eco Ed (short for Ecology Education) Camps are offered free to all seventh grade students in our county. These camps were developed to give students hands on experience that will reinforce classroom lessons in Life Science.  Grand Forks County Soil Conservation District coordinates and makes all the arrangements for speakers and the camp.  All public schools in Grand Forks County currently participate.  Some home schools and private schools attend as well.

The camps are held each September at Turtle River State Park.  The program is set up so students rotate through a variety of sessions including: Water Quality, Rivers, Wetlands, Forestry, Soils, and Prairie.  

This program is funded through a state wide grant administered by Barnes County SCD.  These funds come from the EPA 319 program.  Presenters are volunteers from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, ND Forest Service, ND Health Department, Grand Forks County Extension Service, Grand Forks Public Schools, ND Game & Fish, US Fish and Wildlife, the Energy and Environment Research Center, Red River Riparian Project, ND Project Wet, Grand Forks Water Treatment Plant, Turtle River State Park and Farm Service Agency - Farm Loan Program.  The SCD in Grand Forks County have had this program offered since 2000.  It is the largest and most successful of our education programs.

 

 

Beginning in 2007, all the Eco Ed Students in the state were asked to complete a pre-test and post-test to evaluate our programs success.  For a copy of the pretest, click on the link:   Eco Ed Pretest

 

 

 

 

     

Brochure for a one-day camp. (Click on the images to see each page of the two page brochure.)

 

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Grand Forks County SCD

Eco Ed Camps totals

 

        Year        # Students   # Adults    

2000             225            54

2001             611          158

2002             748          167

2003             737          116

2004             745          141

2005             725          150

2006             628          113

2007             809          157

2008             802          150

2009             807          150

2010             669          109

2011              697            97

Totals        8,203      1,562

 

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If you have questions or need additional information on any of our activities feel free to contact us.    nedra.hoberg@nd.nacdnet.net