Seeing Through Their Eyes Program
Seeing Through Their Eyes Program
The Spartanburg Science Center, Spartanburg Area Conservancy, and the USC Upstate Foundation joined forces in January of 2021 to offer a comprehensive STEAM program to children in the community. ‘Seeing Through Their Eyes’ offered students ages 3-18 an opportunity to learn about and document the nature they saw around them during the pandemic, with the goal of keeping kids engaged, off screens, outdoors and educated during the winter months.
Thanks to the generosity of the Spartanburg County Foundation, the Mary Black Foundation, the USC Upstate Foundation, the EMK Foundation and the City of Spartanburg, the program provided 325 take home kits with a disposable camera, a nature guide to direct the photos, and suggested activities. The guide led kids down the Cottonwood Trail, to the animal room in the Science Center, and to the USC Upstate Arboretum to photograph local plants and animals, learn about patterns in nature, and more.
The Spartanburg Science Center is the premier STEM Hub for quality science education in Spartanburg. The Center boasts over 23 exhibits, an animal room and a museum room. The live animal room features an assortment of reptiles, amphibians, and fish. The museum room has a collection of fossils, bones, skulls, rocks and minerals.
The Science Center is open Thursday through Saturday at 11am-4 pm, located at 200 East St. John Street at the Chapman Cultural Center.
The Spartanburg Area Conservancy maintains The Cottonwood Trail Preserve, a 115-acre urban preserve and trail system located minutes from downtown Spartanburg. The property has over 4 miles of trails, a new boardwalk over the wetlands, and offers habitat for deer, wild turkey, fox, beaver, raccoon, numerous birds and reptiles, wildflowers, and trees.
The Cottonwood Trail is located near McCracken Middle School along Lawson’s Fork Creek. It can be accessed off of Beechwood Drive or below the tennis courts at McCracken Middle School .
Susan Jacobs Arboretum is a place of serene natural beauty. It features a 300-seat amphitheater, lighted walkways, foliage indigenous to the area, and rows of Nuttall Oak trees defining the north quadrangle. A meandering creek lined with stones and boulders completes this tranquil setting.
The Arboretum is home to local plants and wildlife and is open to the public from dusk till dawn during the week.
Contact KJOLLEY@USCUPSTATE.EDU for more information.
