Exploration Station Encourages Nature Awareness through Community Service Project

The Exploration Station at Hardin Simmons has always focused on teaching young students about the environment, but on Thursday, May 4 at 4:30, the program will demonstrate their awareness for nature to the students and community by releasing mosquitofish and Anachris plants into the Reflection Pond at HSU.

The Exploration Station will be conducting this community service project in conjunction with the Texas Parks and Wildlife curriculum Growing Up WILD. The curriculum based activity of releasing the mosquito eating fish and free- floating oxygenating plants will assist in the program’s goal of educating children and the community of diseases mosquitoes can carry and the importance of oxygenating the water.

At the activity, the faculty and students of the Early Childhood Education Department will be conducting the release and answering questions alongside a representative from Texas Parks and Wildlife. The children will be participating in the actual release of the fish and plants.

Dr. Perry Haley Brown, dean of the Irvin School of Education, believes that the students’ direct experiences with nature will embolden outdoor exploration.

“The community service project encourages children in the community to become aware of ways they can protect and improve our environment,” Brown said.

The project is also a way for the Exploration Station to encourage environmental awareness amongst all ages in the community.

“The community service connects Hardin Simmons University to the greater Abilene Community,” Brown said. “We want all ages to engage and explore the world around them and realize the importance of outdoor activities where they can learn more about nature.”