Education & Outreach Overview

Education & Outreach

Education & Outreach

The Montgomery Soil & Water Conservation District (SWCD) offers educational programming for youth and adults to promote conservation of our soil and water and the wise use of our natural resources. Our outreach includes competivite outdoor events for high school students, scholarships, workshops for adults, displays at events, and a yearly festival, Fall Fest. The educational events that are open to the public will be listed on our events page.


Special events and workshops highlight issues that can improve our soil and water quality, and protect our natural resources, our improve our farmlands.

Envirothon

The Envirothon is a competitive, academic, outdoor team event for high school students. It tests knowledge in Aquatic Ecology, Current Environmental Issues, Forestry, Soils and Wildlife while promoting interest in our natural resources and encouraging cooperative decision making, team building, and problem solving.


The Montgomery SWCD offers the County Envirothon and the Area IV Envirothon. Teams winning the Area IV Enirothon have the opportunity to advance to the Ohio Envirothon, and then the national NCF-Envirothon. We are proud of our local team from Centerville HS who competed at the 2020 NCF-Envirothon! Please contact us if you are interested in this event!

Presentations

The Montgomery SWCD Educaton staff visit classrooms and day camps to teach youth about conservation and our natural resources. Our ability to come to your site depends on our availablity and sufficient notice given, and is first come-first serve.


Our Montgomery SWCD Educational Offerings Brochure discusses some of our ongoing programs.

Resources

The Montgomery SWCD has a variety of models and materials can be borrowed for educational purposes, whether for a school, home school or club. The EnviroScape and our Groundwater model are some of our most requested items.


Our Montgomery SWCD Educational Offerings Brochure provides more details about what is available.

Scholarships

The Montgomery SWCD offers two scholarships (@ $1,500 each) to promote natural resources knowledge and educational opportunities for Montgomery County youth. For students who are at least 15 and have completed 8th grade, we offer a scholarship to Camp Canopy. Click here to apply!


For graduating High School seniors attending a College or University majoring in Natural Resources Management or Agriculture, we offer a college scholarship. See this application for more details and deadlines!

Soil Judging

The County Soil Judging Contest is used by our Montgomery County FFA chapters as a practice for the Ohio District 5 Soils Career Development Event. Our County Soil Judging Contest is open to any Montgomery County school that would like to have the chance for their students to learn about our soil in a way that is both unique and very rarely available.


Students judge the soil based on either Urban or Rural guidelines. Students look at the slope of the land and texture of the soil at the surface and subsurface, as well as completing a written general knowledge test about soils. After the contest, conservation professionals review the pits and test answers with the students. Please contact us if you are a teacher interested in bringing students to this event!

Workshops

The Montgomery SWCD hosts a variety of workshops each year to provide opportunities for hands-on and site specific learning experiences. These include annual events such as our Teacher's Workshop that focuses on a different natural resource area of content each year and a Pond Clinic that is hosted at different locations in Montgomery and Preble counties and with a variety of speakers.


We also periodically host workshops on topics such as Cover Crops, Forestry, and Rain Barrels. For further details on upcoming workshops, visit our events page!
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