Sign up for the USDA/Health Magazine Healthier Schools Challenge!

Visit www.health.com/healthierschools and share your school story about what you are doing to fight childhood obesity and teaching children about healthier lifestyles. Schools will receive recognition and you can share tips by reading stories about other schools and their efforts! http://living.health.com/2010/04/21/how-healthy-is-your-childs-school/

Virtual Teacher on Climate Change

Audubon centers in three states have recently installed kiosks that allow internet-savvy children the ability to learn about climate change. These kiosks have a global warming quiz, a crystal ball that reveals how rising temperatures are affecting birds across the country and the option to email users a postcard reminder about climate change featuring an image of an animal that is at risk of extinction because of global warming. The kiosks teach children about actions they can take in order to combat climate change and also reminds them of the positive contributions they are already making towards reducing climate change. Even though one of these kiosks is not yet located in South Carolina all the information can be viewed at the kiosk website.

Michelle Obama expands White House Garden!!!

First Lady Michelle Obama has expanded the size of the White House vegetable garden due to its popularity last year! For more information, please read this story!! http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Gardening/2010/0401/Michelle-Obama-expands-the-White-House-garden

How to Build a Terrarium

Audubon Magazine offers in it's latest edition instructions on how to make a terrarium. The instructions come from OLogy an interactive website run by the American Museum of Natural History that teaches children about many different areas of natural science. Teaching children how to build a terrarium allows them to see first hand the earth's greenhouse effect on a small scale. The terrarium will trap heat inside and the internal temperature will warm up as the plants inside grow. This is a good tool to explain climate change as well because it demonstrates the natural process that results in greenhouses gases being trapped and higher global average temperatures. The terrarium can be made with items readily available and the instructions can be found on the Audubon's website or by searching "terrarium" on the OLogy website.

Summer Camp Scholarships

Wild Birds Unlimited and the National Audubon Society have teamed up to provide children across the country scholarships to attend summer camps as a part of their "No Child Left Inside" campaign. The goal of these scholarships is to give more children the opportunity to connect with the natural world. These experiences with nature are important to children because they offer both physical and emotional benefits that cannot be obtained from spending long summer days in front of a television or computer screen. Each summer Wild Birds Unlimited offers scholarships to about 200 children who might not otherwise be able to attend a summer camp at one of the many Audubon day camps. Specifically, in South Carolina the Audubon Society offers the "Get Swamped" day camp in Harleyville at the Francis Beidler Forest. Wild Birds Unlimited scholarship eligibility is determined by each Audubon Center. For more information on details about general registration, camp programs and scholarships you must contact the camp your child is interested in attending. A list of participating camps can be found at http://www.audubon.org/educate/cw/index.php.