The Environmental Outreach Program of the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (SREL) initiated a hands-on "research-to-classroom" science program for elementary students in 2002. This program was focused on two schools in Aiken County, South Carolina: East Aiken Elementary and Greendale Elementary. Every 4th and 5th grade student at these two schools participated in five 2-hour hands-on science workshops where they worked in teams, formulated hypotheses, and collected, recorded, and analyzed data. Workshops were taught by SREL personnel who worked with classroom teachers; all topics related directly to South Carolina science and math standards. At the conclusion of the workshops, each class participated in a daylong field trip that highlighted habitats of the area and allowed students to practice the skills they had learned in the classroom.

The initial program was developed with funding from The Christensen Fund. Although The Christensen Fund no longer supports K-12 education projects, we appreciate their support. Now in its second year, Kids DO Science is supported by the American Honda Foundation.

The hands-on workshops and materials developed for this program are available at the links below. We invite you to try these with your students. The workshops cover a variety of topics and are appropriate for grades 3-6. All activities were developed to get students involved in science and to stress the scientific method and science inquiry skills. Above all, it is important that kids have fun, learn new skills, and DO science!