Press Releases
Commonwealth of Virginia names Boxerwood as a 2015 Center for Environmental Education Excellence, October 2015.
Commonwealth of Virginia awards "Virginia Naturally" status to 9 of 10 NEST Schools, among only 45 schools state-wide, September 2015.
NEST Teacher Teresa Torrence and her students win national award to help Glen Maury Park, June 2015.
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Archived Updates (continued from home page)4.22. Bay Club members release 172 native brook trout in Colliers Creek raised by the the MRMS 7th grade as part of Trout in the Classroom activities this year. Two RCS School board members attended the release. 4.10. Four schools start bluebird monitoring programs for the spring in their schoolyards. Students put up new bluebird trails at Enderly and Natural Bridge, joining students at Waddell and Central in their efforts. 4.6. NEST director Elise Sheffield presents NEST's model of excellence at the 2016 Environment Virginia Conference at Virginia Millitary Intitute, Lexington, Virginia. 4.4. Three schools pilot Growing Native, a program that involves 4th graders in the care, cultivation, and sale of native trees to help protect our watershed. Growing Native is a program of the Cacapon Institute (WV). March 2016 3.12. We commence our spring season with Water Tracker programs at Boxerwood for Enderly Heights ES, gr. 4. January 2016 1. 7. Lexington Sunrise Rotary contributes $720 toward support of Project NEST programs at Central ES. Thank you! 1.29. Project NEST wins $11,800 grant to assist with our watershed education and gr. 7 Bay Clubs for next school year. Thank you, Virginia License Plate Fund. 
December 2015 12.3. 57 school buses and 1495 students later, we've completed our fall outdoor season. School-based projects like raising trout and recycling continue. November 2015 11.17. WFXR-TV interviews 4th grade NEST students at Boxerwood who are learning how to protect our land and water. Catch it on youtube:http://www.virginiafirst.com/video?videoId=274810182#.Vk4WjKMoweo.facebook 11.5. VA Dept of Environmental Quality (DEQ) scientist Tara Seiber visits the MRMS science team to discuss an upcoming partnership. DEQ will be studying and remediating problems in Woods Creek starting Spring 2016--the same creek 400 MRMS students monitor as part of an ambitious 3-grade project. DEQ would like MRMS students to make presentations about their research at public meetings later this spring. October 2015 10.29-31.Fifty 7th graders and 4 teachers from PMMS, MRMS, and LDMS travel to the Chesapeake Bay for an immersion experience, capstone of our gr. 4 - 7 watershed programs. As members of Bay Clubs at each school, these students will also plan and carry out local action projects that help our waters. Bay Clubs are co-led by NEST teachers and Boxerwood's Hannah West. 10.9. Boxerwood wins state recognition as one of the Commonwealth's first 14 Centers of Environmental Education Excellence. 10.8. Trout eggs arrive at six fish tanks at PMMS, MRMS, Central, and Mountain View, for the annual Trout in the Classroom (TIC) program, facilitated by Boxerwood (Hannah West) in collaboration with Trout Unlimited. Students will release the native brook trout in local streams this spring. 10.7. NEST Fellow (and FES gr. 4 teacher Rick Bain) co-presents a session with Elise Sheffield (Boxerwood) at a sold-out K-8 STEM Conference at VMI, sharing tips from "Map Your Schoolyard" with more than 30 educators across the state. Boxerwood makes three more presentations about the NEST model at the state Environmental Education Conference at Natural Bridge. September 2015 9.23. All 9 NEST Schools receive state recognition as "Virginia Naturally Schools," for their stewardship efforts, an honor accorded only 45 other schools state wide. 9.15. In tandem with Boxerwood, PMHS geology teacher Dan Alexander launches NEST first high school project: a monthly water monitoring investigation of Noel's Run, a creek that runs through Buena Vista from mountains to the Maury. 9.20. NEST Fellow Susan Mahood and school colleagues launch a student-led recycling program for NBES, integrating recycling with the K - 3 curriculum. 9.12. NEST Fall programs commence! | ||||||