Students in Rhode Island and Massachusetts hold the future of Narragansett Bay in their hands, and leaders of Save The Bay want to be sure they have the tools and knowledge to protect it and make it cleaner for everyone.
Signs are that the nonprofit’s efforts to reach students and teachers through its Explore the Bay educational initiative are paying off. In the fiscal year that just ended, more than 25,000 people participated in 811 educational events run by Save The Bay, the group says.
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That’s a 30-percent increase over the last fiscal year, said Russell Hirschler, director of education at Save The Bay.
Education is important, Hirschler said, “because without educating the younger folks today and giving them the critical thinking skills, they will not be able to make advocacy decisions in the future. They are essentially becoming stewards of Narragansett Bay.”
Students and teachers can participate in several programs throughout the year in three basic categories: The outreach program involves experts going into classrooms; students and teachers can also go out in the water on one of the Save The Bay vessels; and the coastal program puts participants in the field to research and explore.
Programs also cater to different ages and groups.
A very popular summer program is the one held at the Bay Exploration Center at Easton’s Beach in Newport. Students in grades K-3 go for Bay Camp and view, touch and learn about more than 100 species featured in the center’s 13 aquariums. Students also take to the shoreline to explore the many species that populate it.
Students in grades 3 through 6 have a slightly different experience. Bay Campers explore Narragansett Bay at its shoreline and by boat, learning about everything from pollution to species’ habitats. Older students in grades 6 through 8 participate in the Naturalists in Training program, where they hone in on marine science by exploring the bay’s species, then taking their discoveries back to the lab.
“The idea is when kids have fun, they forget that they are learning, and it makes them open to experience,” Hirschler said. “We are one of the biggest educational programs in the state and the only one focused on marine sciences and Narragansett Bay.”
Not only are students getting their hands and feet wet and dirty, but teachers are too.
Five years ago, Save The Bay launched Project Narragansett, a year-long academy for teachers who are interested in earning R.I. Department of Education credits, a stipend and two free field trips for their students. Teachers sign up for a week of exploration on Narragansett Bay and learn about marine science from experts and researchers.
“There has been periodic teacher training, but we really decided to take the teachers and give them a week of training in the exact program the students are doing,” Hirschler said.
Jane O’Connell, a sixth-grade English as a second language teacher at Gilbert Stuart Middle School in Providence, has participated for three consecutive years.
“It is a great opportunity to take Providence kids who mostly are from Africa, Dominican Republic or the islands of Puerto Rico and Haiti,” O’Connell said. “Many of them have never been on a boat and don’t know about the water, and we are asking them to think like a scientist, make predictions and hypothesize – it’s subliminal learning.”
Other programs include one for home-schooled students and their parents, seal watches, after-school events and sunset lecture cruises.
For more information about Save The Bay’s educational programs, go to www.savebay.org.
