STEM Festival 2026 -- Encouraging Young Learners to Love Environmental Science

A perfect early evening on the last day of September found SDCI board members and volunteers helping local schoolchildren learn about conservation and environmental science as they perused our interactive display at Lyons Mill Elementary School, whose campus is located less than three miles from Soldiers Delight Natural Environment Area in Owings Mills. Despite our 1900 acres of preserved wilderness boasting more biodiversity than any other site in the entire state of Maryland, several parents and their children who approached our booth late Wednesday afternoon had never heard of Soldiers Delight; many had never hiked its picturesque trails or visited the turtles, snakes and other animals in our visitor center. We were eager to teach all visitors to our display about the more than 39 rare and endangered species of flora and fauna that call Soldiers Delight home and educate them about the environmental threats these and other native phytota face. 

What an amazing group of volunteers! From left to right are: volunteer Logan Olney-Wall, volunteer Frank Wisniewski, SDCI board member Josh Day, volunteer Waiva Worthley, volunteer Ben Giraldo, SDCI board president Laura Van Scoyoc and SDCI board vice president Lynell Tobler

SDCI President Laura Van Scoyoc, Vice President Lynell Tobler, board member Josh Day, and a cadre of enthusiastic volunteers staffed our display, which consisted of tables filled with rocks (signifying the unique geology), plants (signifying the threat of invasives to the native flora), and other artifacts that make Soldiers Delight Natural Environment Area, a state-designated wildland, such a rare and wonderful place of exploration and discovery for young and old alike.

Laura tailored our bulletin board exhibits to elementary school viewers, creating imaginative images and signage to explain why littering is bad, invasive plants are worse, and periodic prescribed burning of invasive flora is critical to the survival of our native botanical assemblage.

Among the variety of child-friendly activities we offered were colorful, old-fashioned "cootie-catchers" customized with a nature theme, milkweed seed pods and seed packets for families to take home and plant, and mineral samples on display in the form of rocks and sands to entice children to learn about the unique geology that defines the serpentine bedrock on which the Soldiers Delight habitat sits.

One of the most important aspects of the rare and wonderful Soldiers Delight ecosystem is the important role that Native Americans played in enabling the unusual vegetation of this biotope to thrive. By lighting periodic fires to herd deer for hunting, the tribes who inhabited the region inadvertently burned away aggressive vines and other invasive vegetation, allowing native grasses and wildflowers to cover the edaphic, shallow soils. As fire drove game toward the waiting arrows of Indigenous hunters eager to shore up their stores for winter, invasive flora was kept at bay. But once European settlers arrived, the "burn culture" faded, allowing invasive trees and vines to resume their persistent march into the area.

One of the critical functions that SDCI supports is the re-integration of fire to the ecosystem. We do this in the form of "prescribed burns," during which a highly-skilled burn team spends several days introducing a controlled burn to specific, pre-planned areas of Soldiers Delight where our rare and endangered native plants are most threatened.

To demonstrate the importance of controlled burns, SDCI conceived a "prescribed burn activity for children," an interactive, play-based exercise in which children don genuine protective helmets and water-bladder backpacks and use the hand-pump nozzles to keep a target of "faux" flames contained within prescribed perimeters.

Brenton Bilal, 5, of Owings Mills, shoots water toward the faux flames at Lyons Mill Elementary School's STEAM festival on September 30

Children gleefully lined up to participate as our invaluable volunteers helped them into helmets and bladder-packs. The occasion presented an ideal opportunity to explain to their curious parents how periodic burning of the habitat is a critical step in beating back invasive greenbrier and other intrusive species, which in turn allows dormant native grass seeds to finally have enough light, air circulation, and space to germinate and grow.

Akilan Ganesh Kumar, 7, of Owings Mills, takes aim at the faux flames during the "Prescribed Burn Activity" at Lyons Mill Elementary School

Children got a feel for what it's like to wear a 50-pound backpack full of water on one's back while manipulating a hand pump sprayer to control flames in a wildland setting. We got a chance to spread the word about our mission at Soldiers Delight Conservation, Inc.: to educate the public about Soldiers Delight and to conserve and restore its rare and endangered ecosystem for future generations.

An eager crowd of children waited in line for their turn to channel their inner "burn boss" at Soldiers Delight Conservation, Inc.'s display during Owings Mill Elementary School's annual STEM festival

In no time at all, the line to participate in our burn activity for children stretched long. In all, we counted 113 visitors to our display during the 90-minute event. That's 113 children and adults who learned what a rare treasure the Soldiers Delight habitat is -- right around the corner from their homes! Thank you, Lyons Mill Explorers PTA and Lyons Mill Elementary School faculty for inviting us to participate in your important festival. We were delighted, once again, to provide a fun, interactive learning opportunity at your school.