Students at Paden City Elementary were able to experience hands on activities through the Oglebay Institute Schrader Center.

At the Schrader Environmental Education Center nature enthusiasts experience a sense of community around a shared love of nature. By creating opportunities to celebrate and study West Virginia’s native habitats, Schrader Center programs initiate, reinforce and extend people’s connection to nature through hands-on, science-based, interpretive experiences.

The REACH program is currently taught in every fifth-grade classroom in Marshall and Ohio County schools in West Virginia, serving more than 700 students annually. All fifth-grade students take a pre-test to assess knowledge at the start of the program. Included are hands-on lessons on energy flow through food chains, matter cycling, watersheds, adaptations, pH testing, aquatic life and human impact, following by post-testing. These programs establish a foundation of scientific knowledge that is built upon during a field trip to the Schrader Center to study surrounding habitats, organisms, and their adaptations.

PCE students learned about spheres, ecosystems, energy flow and the water cycle and how all these systems intertwine. Various classes, workshops, and camps are available throughout the year. Check out their schedule at Oglebay Institute’s Schrader Environmental Education Center (oionline.com)