School Grounds to Sound
This blog post was written by Dana Packer, grants and special programs at EdAdvance.
After decades of water pollution, rising water temperatures and hypoxia threatened Long Island Sound in 1950. In these unhealthy conditions, marine fauna and flora died in large numbers, including lobsters. By the late 1990s many local fishermen lost their livelihoods.
In 1923, Long Island Sound became a protected body of water. In 1972 the Clean Water Act was passed, and by 1989, new management strategies were implemented, and public education efforts became widespread. In the following decade, new laws and policies restricted pollution, and in 2001 nitrogen levels were significantly reduced. Since then, communities and organizations up and down the Long Island Sound coast have worked together to protect and clean up their shorelines.
Our students now join this effort.
The EdAdvance watershed STEM program, School Grounds to Sound, teaches the next generation about the anthropogenic impacts on Long Island Sound. EdAdvance, a nonprofit Regional Education Service Center (RESC), is partnering with Bristol Connecticut Public Schools and Indian Rock Nature Preserve to implement this eeBLUE 21st CCLC Watershed STEM Education Partnership Grant Program. Ninety K–3 students from three 21st Century Community Learning Center sites (21st CCLC) travel by school bus after school once a week to Indian Rock Nature Preserve as part of their 21st CCLC program. These elementary school students experience hands-on outdoor learning through customized environmental education (EE) lessons, many based on NOAA education resources and Project WET. The program started in September with multi-day teacher professional development so that the Bristol 21st CCLC teachers could feel comfortable and confident co-teaching the EE lessons with us and continue leading these lessons in future years.
Students walk with environmental educator Kirsten Tomlinson to investigate the health of a Pequabuck River tributary. Photo credit: Dana Packer © 2024
Students learn how farms depend on a healthy watershed and play an important role in keeping our watersheds healthy. Photo credit: Dana Packer © 2024
Students learn biology and chemistry as they investigate the quality of their local waterways and play games outside to simulate the water cycle, the flow of water in different weather conditions, and how pollutants build up in our watershed. They learn new vocabulary, calculate numbers, explore plant and animal species, and discover their own role in shaping and caring for our watershed. They have a fall field trip to their local water treatment plant and a spring field trip to Long Island Sound.
All students participate in an environmental stewardship project throughout the year called the TerraCycle Brigade Stewardship Project. They collect snack wrappers, record data, serve as peer role models, and educate their families about an achievable everyday action that benefits the environment. They learn about how different materials are recycled, why recycling is critically important to the environment, and how every person can make a difference in their own school and community.
Through their participation in the program, young students associate the outdoors and our watershed with friends, educators, and playtime. This positive social-emotional component opens doors for students. Young children who never thought about being scientists or environmental educators begin to see new possibilities in the natural world around them. Students’ active participation in hands-on activities like collecting and identifying macroinvertebrates to determine water quality increases practical knowledge and builds lasting values of care, respect, and reciprocity for the environment. This early involvement cultivates a lifelong commitment to environmental stewardship.
NAAEE, in collaboration with NOAA and supported by the U.S. Department of Education, is working with twelve environmental education organizations to offer engaging after-school watershed-focused STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) programs. The eeBLUE 21st Century Community Learning Centers Watershed STEM Education Partnership Grants, administered by NAAEE and running from 2024–2025, support environmental education organizations collaborating directly with 21st CCLC sites. These sites play a crucial role in designing and implementing locally relevant, out-of-school-time programs that develop students' environmental literacy and leadership skills as they improve their communities. These grants support programming for local Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) sites and their students, many of whom live in underserved areas. The 12 selected projects serve 11 states, ranging from Hawai’i to Maine.