Vicky Smith, A-Z Animals, helps a Merritt Elementary 6th-grader indentify fossils.

The Auburn University Environmental Institute’s (AUEI) Black Belt Environmental Science and Arts Program (BBESAP) reaches out to underserved youth in the Black Belt region of Alabama. BBESAP is an off-campus environmental education project designed to increase the appreciation, knowledge and conservation of natural resources by the region’s students, and teachers. The program targets public school students (grades 5-8) in the Black Belt region and provides special outdoor classroom field days offering educational opportunities and career development exposure in a non-traditional setting.

Merritt Elementary students observe while Jo Lewis, AL department of DCNR, catches the macro-invertebrates with a seine.

The program format is designed to stimulate academic achievement in science and the arts. The program is intended to complement and enhance the classroom curriculum in science by conducting hands-on environmental science modules. The environmental education efforts are further enhanced through literary and visual art modules. Such activities demonstrate to students how environmental awareness is not a purely scientific endeavor but can include works of art and literature.

Jayme Oates, Alabama Water Watch, demonstrates to D.C Wolfe Elementary students how drinking water can be polluted by using two EnvironScapes.

Since spring 2005, 119 field days and programs were conducted and over 4,746 students from 13 different Barbour, Bullock, Wilcox, Monroe and Macon County Schools attended. Examples of science modules included tree identification, fossils, mosaic, trail walks, reptiles and amphibians comparison, pond ecology, hydrology characteristics, bats, and carnivorous plants. Art-related modules included nature photography, farm life depiction, haiku poetry and nature journals. More detailed descriptions and photos are found on the module page.

Glenn Reed (right) discusses a piece of modern baleen and how modern whales share many traits with their fossilized ancestors with students from Merritt Elementary School.

In fall 2011, students from South Highland Middle School in Bullock County were treated to a visit from Glenn and Heidi Reed of Myrtle Beach South Carolina. The Reeds own an Internet business called Where on Earth? and have generously donated geology and fossil materials to the program for several years. When the Reeds left their home in South Carolina to travel to Bullock County, they took a detour of more than 1,000 miles to Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas to gather a collection of world class fossil specimens, they shared their knowledge and love of fossils with students over four days. In addition to wooly mammoth tusks and large coprolite, the students also examined modern sharks' jaws and each went home with a starter collection of sharks teeth, alligator teeth, and insects.

The Reeds have volunteered to teach 11 fossil programs for AUEI's Black Belt Education Program since 2009.