| Student Programs |
Four years of Maryland Chapter partnership effort have resulted in substantial progress toward the goal of having all Maryland students learn the American chestnut story in the context of high quality hands-on learning experiences that prepare students to excel on state-mandated measures of learning. Partnership with Carroll County helped the school district to incorporate American chestnut learning
experiences throughout its science curriculum, and to link science learning and service learning by involving students in American chestnut restoration activities. The Maryland Chapter has provided science and technical expertise for training of teachers and staff as curriculum was developed and as the county established a backcross breeding orchard at its outdoor school in spring of 2007. The success of the American chestnut Project in Carroll County has served as a model to inspire other school districts to initiate similar partnership efforts.
The Maryland Chapter/Carroll County student projects led to a partnership with the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (UMBI) and creation of an American Chestut Tree Loaner Lab where students learn advanced genetic concepts and utilize gel electrophoresis techniques in the context of learning about the relationship between chestnut blight fungus and hypovirus that can infect and weaken the blight.
This lab kit is available for use in classrooms at no cost to teachers who have been trained to use the lab kits. More than 1800 students used the American chestnut lab kit during the 2006-2007 school year. The Maryland Chapter has provided expertise to support development of the lab and teacher training. Maryland Chapter members contributed funds to enable to UMBI Loaner Lab Program to purchase and equip an additional lab kit as teacher requests exceeded lab availability. Carroll County science factuly have had success using the American Chestnut Lab with diverse classroom groups and have found that participating students scored well on state tests of concepts taught by the lab.
Link to UMBI Loaner Lab Site for more information on the Chestnut Tree Lab
