GCE Announcement
Outreach News
2026 GCE Schoolyard
From July 11-17, UGAMI welcomed 13 K-12 educators (nine new participants and four returning teacher mentors) to Sapelo Island for the 2026 GCE Schoolyard summer workshop.
Schoolyard is not a tour of science. Teachers do the science. Throughout the week, they worked alongside GCE researchers to collect Spartina, measure snails, sort specimens, check tide gauges, learn about crabs and oysters, and get very muddy in the marsh. They also explored Sapelo’s history and Gullah Geechee community while considering how these experiences could translate to their own students and classrooms.
Some of the week’s most memorable moments could never have been planned. Teachers watched a mother loggerhead sea turtle come ashore and lay her eggs and saw baby loggerheads emerge from a nest and begin their journey to the ocean. One teacher called it “the greatest turtle adventure of my life.”
Teachers also highlighted the relationships built throughout the week: conversations with scientists, shared meals, new friendships, and the opportunity to contribute to real research. As one participant put it, the experience helped her realize that “scientists are people too”—people who ask questions, collaborate, troubleshoot, and learn from one another.
Returning participant and SCCPSS Teacher of the Year Sam Sacks captured the week in a short video: Watch the 2026 GCE Schoolyard video
The teachers also created a presentation introducing themselves and thanking the researchers and staff who made the week possible: Meet the teachers and read their thank-yous
Thank you to every researcher who welcomed teachers into their work; to the UGAMI and GCE staff who made the week possible; and to our teachers for asking questions, trying new things, and reminding us why this program matters.
Learn more about GCE Schoolyard and future workshops at the GCE Schoolyard website or contact Austin Heil at Austin.Heil@uga.edu. Applications for 2027 Schoolyard will open in January.
-Austin D. Heil, Ph.D.
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(Contact John Williams for additional information)
submitted Jul 21, 2026
