Hello I'm Beryl Dakers.

Welcome to another edition of Palmetto Scene.

We're here today at the Richland School District Two institute of innovation.

R2 I2's mission is to foster individual student growth as innovators within a safe environment by stimulating creativity, encouraging leadership, promoting teamwork and building entrepreneurial skills.

This is just one example of the many unique educational experiences offered throughout the Palmetto State.

We'll look at a few tonight, beginning with a look at the Governor's School of Science and Math.

Coming here was actually a challenge for me because I wasn't good at making friends.

But since we're all in the same boat, it was really it was really easy adjusting because everyone here wants you to succeed, so just don't be afraid and challenge yourself.

The South Carolina's School for Science and Mathematics is a public residential high school for 11th through 12th graders.

They apply in 10th grade.

It's a unique living and learning environment where the students take rigorous classes and get to have opportunities they would not otherwise have at other high schools in the state.

And they have the added bonus of living with their classmates and colleagues.

So there's that learning that goes on outside the classroom.

While the focus is science and math, we also offer very strong Humanities courses in History, English, and Writing composition.

(teacher speaking to class) ...being released into the skeletal muscle the brachialis.

I can go back and forth.

This is a STEM school.

So we emphasize a lot on the concept of STEM.

Almost every STEM course that is taught in our school has a lab component, which many public schools don't have.

It's been sometimes two to two and a half hours doing lab work, so the lab sort of integrates into that theory class.

Our classes are pretty intensive.

We do teach at a much higher level than what you might see at the public school.

And we run it like a college.

(teacher speaking to students) ...another little section today.

How's the reading going?

Are you all caught up?

Are you doing what you supposed to do?

The virtual programs as well as our outreach programs allow us to reach more students in the state.

As you know you may know, there only a 288 beds in the residential program.

So we can reach many many more students with our science and math programs, our engineering programs, so that more students are ready and interested in becoming STEM professionals.

At first it was a bit of a struggle you know after you know transitioning to being away from home all the time and you know living in your school is kind of... It's a big deal, a big change.

And I think that it takes a few, a few weeks to transition.

But after that, you kind of get in the groove of things.

You know you get used to it.

You do have the transition issues, especially for students who don't have siblings.

And so you never have to share a room or a bathroom.

And now your placed in environment where you have 288 siblings, where you have to learn how to share, work with another person.

The values and morals that you come here with sometimes you may find that they may change, because of course you're gaining that sense of independence.

And so you begin thinking and developing for yourself.

And so that's the beauty of the Governor's School.

But I would say with the transition that can be a little tough.

They really teach you how to best study, which is very very helpful.

Because a lot of us that come here, we're like the best at our old high schools.

Never really had to study.

So coming here, we kind of think, 'Well, it's going to be the same way.

no one's gonna have to study.

We're just all going to be fine.'

But it definitely...they are college level courses and the professors here take their teaching very seriously.

Their passionate about the subjects that they teach and not transfers to the students.

So whenever we get passionate about it we want to learn more about it that encourages us to study more and more.

So it really prepares us for the college experience being able to handle the course load that we would have there.

(students cheering during a sports event) It's a little tougher here.

But the real interesting thing is right now in season we have 72% of the student population participating in varsity athletics.

So the kids like the fact that they're gonna play.

The kids are so smart.

Sometimes it's hard to coach them, because if you show them a play or you show them a technique and it doesn't work, then they they break it down.

They'll get really engrossed in it.

Everybody no matter what their role is on the virtual team or in the school, it's focused on a well balanced student and making sure that academically, emotionally, socially, they're prepared to go out and be tomorrow's leaders.

Don't be afraid because you are going to succeed.

I chose to come here because I wanted a challenge in my education.

At my old school there weren't really many challenging courses I could take, but coming here I get to take classes that I'm interested in and they're challenging, such as anatomy, AP chemistry, AP physics and I really enjoy taking them.

Just don't be afraid and challenge yourself.

Our state has always emphasized the value of early learning opportunities for our youngest citizens through our children's museum we've opened the door to a new generation of lifelong learners.

Children's museums are that foundational place where you can go and feel unrestricted.

It's about innovation and creativity and having a great time and not really realizing that you're getting that educational content in there.

It's a really about having a community convening place where the community can come together.

It's not a scary place.

It's a fun place.

It's a great place where the whole family can come and have a wonderful opportunity.

The Children's museum was founded back in 2003 So we celebrated our tenth birthday, last fall.

We're located in an old train depot right in downtown Charleston so kids and families can walk up and come visit us anytime.

We have nine exhibits throughout the museum.

We're standing right in front of our Low Country pirate ship which has a lot of Low Country history.

Kids can learn to tie knots up on the pirate ship.

We have a knot tying station.

We also have on the walls, history about pirates in the Low Country, as well as the quizzes and trivia about pirates in the Low Country.

We have Water Wise, which is all about water, and here in the Low Country water is very important to us.

We also have bridges that are similar to the Mount Pleasant, Ravenel bridge and the Sullivan's Island bridge.

The kids like to run boats through the water in the bridge.

And they like to set the dam up and let all the water rush out and it floods everything and the kids just love getting wet.

Play is so important to kids and playing these days since the 1950's play has been getting more and more structured.

There's more toys and more games, video games and more TV's.

Our job here at the museum is to make sure that play is still a huge part of kids' and families' lives.

The idea of a children's museum came about almost twenty years now with some mom's who just wanted a little play place for their kids you know throw the Legos on the ground kind of thing, but instead this wonderful building was donated.

This used to be the county library.

So it's 80,000 square feet, which makes us the seventh largest children's museum in the country.

So these moms sort of got it going and then the community came on board, a lot of corporate sponsorships came about and now it's just part of the fabric of our lives here in Greenville.

We are the first children's museum in the country to be affiliated with the Smithsonian.

And that's a big deal for us because usually organizations with the Smithsonian are your traditional adult history museums or science museums.

But for us it's really about the programming piece of things.

So we're looking forward beginning that work with the Smithsonian, helping them understand hands on learning, them allowing us to borrow some of the things that they have, and also bringing speakers in different subject areas.

Every four months we'll have a new traveling exhibit in.

We've now started to design our own.

So this summer we'll be creating an exhibit ourselves.

And it's called the great outdoors.

We're partnering with Cabellas, our wonderful new friends in town, and we're creating an indoor version of an upstate campground.

So it'll have a river through, a canoe, a camping tent, a camp fire so the kids will really get to learn about all the great adventures they can have right here in our area.

There are so many things now that teachers are really needing to do in their classroom and there's so many concepts that are really difficult for some teachers because they don't have hands on equipment in their rooms.

When a teacher brings her students here, she can cover all of those curriculum areas but she can do it in a way that allows the kids to really get into the meat of the subject.

And by allowing kids to have those tangible hands on learning experiences, their going to retain the information that much longer.

So we're really seeing this as a positive addition to all of our students' education here in Greenville.

(kid making fire truck sounds) I'd like to describe Ed-venture as an educational amusement park.

When you hear the word children's museum sometimes you think, museum you know we can't touch, we can only look.

But everything at Ed-venture is hands on.

We have over 350 interactive hands on exhibits here.

So we encourage parents and kids to explore our galleries.

We have over nine galleries and our mission is to experience the joy of learning.

The biggest thing is of course Eddie.

He is the world's largest child.

He's seventeen and a half tons and four stories high.

And kids love to explore Eddie.

And then from Eddie, kids usually explore some of our other permanent exhibits.

They can learn to be doctors and dentists and veterinarians.

And they can do a lot of role playing here.

We have a full size fire truck.

And we want kids to know that as long as they study hard and they give it their best that there's all kinds of opportunities out there for em.

We really want to courage that so that we continue educating South Carolina's children.

Children's museums are important to the state of South Carolina because we need those opportunities and those avenues for our students.

Cause we want to make sure that we stay competitive and keep our children in the state of South Carolina, we've gotta give them opportunities.

And we've got to work with organizations and corporations and foundations to make sure that we're providing those science, technology engineering, arts, creativity.

All of those innovative programs and and areas that are gonna grow throughout the United States, we've got to keep em here.

Music has long been recognized as a valuable tool in education.

In Columbia the Koger center has partnered with Cola Jazz to bring musical experiences to students from The Boys and Girls Clubs of both the Midlands and Kershaw County ♪ (trumpet) ♪ We did a cross collaboration with Cola Jazz and the Koger Center to bring some jazz experience to the Boys and Girls Club of the Midlands and the Boys and Girls Club of Kershaw county.

♪ (trumpet and piano) ♪ The arts are tremendously important.

I feel like through the arts you can learn just about anything.

Right you can learn it deeper.

You learn it faster.

You retain it better when the arts are involved with whatever it is you're learning.

So like today they were able to have history.

They were able to experience world cultures all through music.

And so that's going to stick with them better than any lecture that they could have ever gotten.

Now jazz started in America and then it went all over the world.

So jazz can be played on many different instruments in many different settings.

It could swing.

It could be funky.

It could be groovy.

It could be played on this crazy instrument.

I learned about different beats and different tools that people use to play the drums.

And I think that's really cool.

Or you play something a little bit funkier.

Make everybody dance.

♪ (drums) ♪ The music teaches you all of your life skills that you need, no matter if you continue on as a musician or if you move on to being a doctor, or engineer.

It gives you those interpersonal skills and the ability to listen.

The ability to the process.

Ability to communicate.

The ability to handle your emotions.

The ability to face adversity with sophistication and class.

♪ (jazz music) ♪ But jazz also teaches you that you have your own voice which is valid and respected and the group that you're with is there for you to back you up and to support you.

But at the same time you as an individual are always aware and conscious of the group in supporting the group.

So it's a two way street.

So at at all times the group is there for the individual, the individuals are there for the group.

So you're all working together.

It's is a powerful thing.

♪ (jazz music) ♪ And it's so much fun.

You truly get to express yourself and all dimensions.

You know from being happy or angry or sad or celebratory.

You get to your work it all out through the music.

♪ (trumpet solo) ♪ You know, and that's what we try to bring it to the young people.

Show them that there is a really fun healthy outlet to dealing with growing up amongst your peers and dealing with peer pressure and that kind of stuff.

You get on your horn you know and then make your sound and work it out and feel a lot better.

♪ oh when the saints... ♪ Jazz is all about the feeling and any time you can feel something you will remember that.

Trust me you will remember that because you have experienced that.

And you have been a part of that experience.

For sure.

You gonna always remember how you feel.

What we're gonna do we're gonna improvise.

Just like you're making up excuses like you don't want to do homework.

They're going to improvise this song.

Now they've never heard this song before but we're going to do a little do whop do whop.

Eboni give a little example.

Just improvise.

♪ (Scatting) ♪ There we go.

Brave brave volunteers are going to give it a go.

Are you ready young man?

Improvise.

It's okay if you're not willing to do it on the first round because you may be a little shy or whatever the case may be.

But then we keep it going and those that are willing they get their peers to come along.

And so sometimes I found that youth are really more open when they see their peers join in.

♪ (Scatting) ♪ They expect the adult to be able to do it and they expect us to be able to do it because we're the musicians.

But when they see their peers doing it, yeah it really helps.

Yeah she's ready.

♪ (Scatting) ♪ ♪ And so to grab those ones that are willing and then let them show their peers the way, it works out very very well.

And it's so touching you know to see that you were a part of that them coming together.

They may not have even known each other but they've inspired another.

♪ (Scatting) ♪ ♪ (Scatting) ♪ ♪ (Scatting) ♪ ♪ (Scatting) ♪ That's jazz baby.

Yeah.

(laughs) It was amazing.

I love jazz.

It was so cool.

Wow!

Finally remember field trips and how exciting they could be?

One program at the University of South Carolina is using the field trip as an opportunity to introduce middle school students to college life and to get them excited about their educational features.

Be still for a minute.

I believe in you.

You will go to college.

And you will know the navigational process to get there.

(Various students talking to each other) We're glad you're here.

We have planned for you today, a wonderful, interesting, fantastic, engaging day.

How long was she unresponsive for?

It's been about twenty minutes.

Okay!

The University of possibilities is a new opportunity that's been developed so that we invite six graders.

Middle school students, those six graders before they actually are seniors to come to our campus and to experience the day in the life of a college student.

But it's not just one day as a sixth grader.

We're continuing to develop programs where we work with those students then as they move into the seventh grade, as they move into the eighth grade, as I transition to high school.

All along the way helping those students to understand, you too can go to college and we want to help you navigate that experience.

(applause) You know what excites me is the fact that we now have an opportunity for students to experience a little bit more.

There's always a push for students to go to trade schools or go straight to work or straight into the military.

Well now I want them to have the opportunity to at least experience the college life.

Notice like because in today's age you know, a bachelor's degrees, you know, what a high school diploma is to them.

So they need more out of life than just saying, 'Okay I'm just going to go into the workforce.

And I'm gonna make a career out of that and that's it.

(Teacher and students greeting each other) We're going to give you a theatre experience today.

Are you guys ready for it?

Yes!

Oh you didn't sound like you're ready.

You guys ready for it?

Yes!

Yes.

Okay.

And when you look at kids here who come from Lancaster, you know this program can provide more than just a college experience.

It can provide them with a vision that they may you know say, 'Hey!

You know I might not be college ready yet.

By the time I get to twelfth grade, I will be ready.'

The students that were in my group they were very excited.

One student told me that this his first time ever on a college campus and he can't wait to come back.

He even started as far as to ask me.

Okay do I have to get my high school diploma?

Can I get a GED?

What do I need to do in order to get back?

I've seen a lot of smiles and just students being happy and really enjoying themselves here today.

I think this is a great great program.

Because I know I was not prepared at all and when I got to high school they were throwing all the information at me.

I mean, I just- it was a lot to take in and I feel like they would be a lot more prepared with this.

I feel like it's great for them.

It was really fun.

We got to look into this camera with our eyes and we followed something.

We could see what our eyes were doing.

And we got to do a science experiment.

And we also got to see Cola.

I think it's important for all.

Not only Union, for all counties to have this.

It gives the kids a chance to come in and you know really have hands on experience and kind of go ahead about what they might want to start doing for college or things they want to start thinking about doing.

It's going to prepare them for what to expect.

They're hands on students.

They like to see it, feel it, experience it, so that way they can understand it better.

I struggled.

I was thinking okay what do I do?

I got to do something that you know they will remember.

So I came over in my academic regalia and my tam on and my gown.

And so I started talking to them about you know is this what you think of as a college professor?

Or of the dean of the campus?

Or what have you?

And they're kind of nodding their head and you could see they were really intimidated by that.

And I took that off.

and I said this is me everyday.

I'm just a regular guy, you could be here one of the these days doing the same thing.

And then I shared my story about being a first generation college student myself.

I mean we all come from different backgrounds and different experiences, different family circumstances.

But for me it was transformative.

We started ten years ago and now it's really taken off and I'm really happy that we are providing an educational process for, especially kids that are in the rural areas of the state.

We'll go in the communities.

We ask the communities to participate, the local delegation, the local teachers, all those board of trustee members of the University of South Carolina.

They all are involved to make sure the kids in their area have an opportunity to make it to college.

It's a passion of mine when you see young children, sixth grade, understanding that they can be part of a campus.

Once you make it to campus, it changes your life totally.

The friends that you meet and how they encourage one another and just knowing that they have a possibility of seeing something different and changing their lives, and changing their family lives.

And that really strikes a chord with me.

Because I know that once you get on this campus it's a game changer.

For more stories about our state and more details on the stories you've just seen, please visit our website at Palmettoscene.org and of course don't forget to follow us on social media, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at SCETV # palmetto scene.

We leave you with tonight's Palmetto postcard from our online digital series our town.

For ETV and Palmetto Scene I'm Beryl Dakers.

Good night.

And thanks for watching.

Ridgeway's just a special little town.

Ridgeway just keeps attracting people.

Everybody helps each other.

It's just really like Mayberry kind of.

It's a great small town to get away from the the busy-ness of your larger towns.

A lot of people like to come where you can walk everywhere.

And this is a great town to do it.

We are so small and compact.

We offer a lot for people.

There's a pig on ridge festival which is the biggest barbecue festival in South Carolina.

That's the first weekend in November every year.

Arts on the ridge is our other big event that we have spring of every year.

And then our businesses are really good about doing a lot of local events.

We have first Fridays every month that our local businesses participate in.

There's so much.

You can just come have lunch, stroll the streets, talk to people.

It's like stepping back in time.

Yeah we have open charge accounts.

Able to charge a hammer or whatever they want and don't even have to sign a ticket.

They charge it, kind of a thing of the past but we still do it.

This is our town.

This is our town.

This is our town.

This is our town.

♪ (closing music) ♪