Students from the Beacon Charter High School in Woonsocket, who huddled at the shoreline outside Save The Bay’s headquarters at Fields Point to collect marine specimens on a recent blustery morning, were joined by two unexpected guests from Rhode Island’s congressional delegation.
U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse both visited Save The Bay on May 19 to announce $1.08 million in federal funding for the environmental organization’s Explore the Bay marine education programs, which provide experiential conservation-focused education, curriculum development and hands-on learning for youths and adults across the state.
Save The Bay’s educational programs serve twin purposes, said Curt Spalding, the organization’s executive director. They offer elementary and high school students a valuable science curriculum, at a time when some don’t receive any science education in the classroom.
And Save The Bay’s work to teach children about Narragansett Bay and its estuaries helps the organization create a new generation that understands the conservation measures needed to sustain Rhode Island’s aquatic ecosystem, he said.
“It’s about kids connecting to Narragansett Bay and it’s about generational stewardship,” Spalding said at the press conference. “Having kids come to Save The Bay to learn about the ecosystem creates a vital link between the organization and the community.”
Save The Bay operates a handful of separate educational programs under its Explore the Bay banner, which collectively reach 10,000 to 15,000 children annually. Project Narragansett, Save The Bay’s teacher academy, brings teachers to Save The Bay to learn about the Bay and how to integrate coastal education into their classroom curricula. The program also gives each teacher that goes through the academy two field trips on the Bay with their classes.
Four high schools in the state – Classical and Feinstein high schools in Providence, Central Falls High School and Rogers High School in Newport – take part in Save The Bay’s Narragansett Field Studies program, which brings classrooms directly to Narragansett Bay and salt marshes across the state for study.
At the elementary school level, Save The Bay’s Bay Partners program integrates bay education directly into curricula in several schools. The program is especially important in the Providence public school system, which provides no science education at the grade school level, Spalding said.
Save The Bay also operates a science camp for girls, which is aimed at boosting girls’ interest in the sciences, and a special initiative with the Sullivan Elementary School in Newport to “comprehensively connect them to the bay,” Spalding said.
“Outdoor learning is vital for the development of children,” he said. “Experience is the best way to learn – learn by doing. It’s fun when you’re doing something and you’re learning in the process. It’s also about math and science, because what kids learn on Narragansett Bay in doing experiential learning are math and science skills, solid investigation skills, how you can become a scientist, how you can apply math skills to understand the world around you.”
Sens. Reed and Whitehouse secured $893,000 for Save The Bay’s educational programs in a 2008 appropriations bill and U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy secured $188,000 in the same measure.
Kennedy missed the news conference to be with his father, Massachusetts’ U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who was recently diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. “I want to make sure everyone knows that Representative Kennedy has been a vital part of securing these funds and has been a vital part of growing our Explore the Bay program – not just this past year but for years going back,” Spalding said.
(Spalding, who has been at the helm of the environmental organization since 1987, in February announced he would leave the position this summer to pursue other opportunities. READ MORE)
Reed said he hopes the outdoor, experiential education programs that Save The Bay offers for students across the state could be used as a national model with the passage of the No Child Left Inside Act – legislation he is championing in Washington, D.C., that would authorize major new funding for states to provide environmental instruction and support outdoor learning activities both at school and environmental education centers.
The legislation comes as an expanding body of research shows that children are increasingly suffering from obesity and other health problems as a result of too much time spent indoors watching television and using computers.
“This is a powerful educational model that we hope can be applied not just in Rhode Island but nationwide,” Reed said of the Explore the Bay program. •
A video recording from the May 19 news conference at the Save the Bay Center is available at www.YouTube.com.
