McDuffie County Schools receiving money for outdoor classrooms for a unique learning experience

McDuffie County, Ga. (WJBF) – McDuffie County Schools and Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff are working together to create unique student learning opportunities, funding McDuffie County School System with $105,000.

McDuffie County schools received federal money to create an outside classroom to teach STEM concepts.

“We as a district are fortunate enough to have property through the US Army Corps of Engineers at Clarks Hill,” said Dr. Mychele Rhodes, the Superintendent of McDuffie County Schools. “We have a structure there presently. Our goal is to take the structure we have and create an outdoor STEM lab for our students.”

As of right now, the area is used for archery and rented out for events. They will use a little more than 29 acres along with that facility for their outdoor classrooms.

“Our purpose here on McDuffie County Schools is to prepare students for college, career, and life, and through this outdoor classroom, we will be able to expose our students to careers in biology, wildlife management, and also landscape architecture,” said Rhodes.

The labs will be hands-on and provide a unique learning experience, teaching math and science in a real-world setting.

“Any student in the district will be eligible to attend courses at the new classroom, but we look forward to focusing on the elementary grades. We want to be able to spark an interest in the careers that are actually available, and we’ll be able to do this through this new outdoor classroom area,” said Rhoades.

There is no timeline yet for when this will be finished, but the plan is to have one indoor lab with two outdoor learning areas.

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