Maybe it was coincidence, or maybe not, but when Sheafe Road Elementary School students took to the Fallkill Creek on Oct. 7, the watershed seemed less polluted than in months past.
“Awareness,” said Lisa DiMarzo, an interpretative educator at the Mid-Hudson Children’s Museum in the City of Poughkeepsie. “We’re always trying to increase awareness, because if people are connected to the watershed, they take care of it.” DiMarzo coordinates creek-related activities at the museum, working closely with the Department of Environmental Conservation.
The students from Sheafe Road Elementary School in Wappingers Falls who visited the museum and watershed weren’t alone, because Waryas Park in the City of Poughkeepsie was just one of more than 50 locations along the Hudson River where New York State students participated in “A Day in the Life of the Hudson River,” an annual NYSDEC event.
Hosted by the DEC’s Hudson River Estuary Program, the event is aimed toward educating Hudson Valley residents about the ecology of the river through public programs, and through the development of a K-12 curriculum.
On Tuesday, students from New York Harbor to the federal dam at Troy worked on and in the Hudson, collecting scientific information to create snapshots of the river at each location. At Waryas Park, groups of fourth graders rotated through stations, where they got hands-on and knee-deep in the watershed.
“This is our second time here, and we love it,” said Madeleine Burday, a special education teacher at Sheafe Road Elementary School. She said that Sheafe Road students have been participating in the event for years, but what started out as one class the first year turned into two classes the next year, and now the entire fourth grade participates.
“It’s a great way to get students out of the classroom and into the river for the day,” she said.
Creek-side classroom
“Who can tell me what lives in the stream?” asked Jennifer Rubbo, Fallkill watershed coordinator of Hudson River Clearwater Sloop Inc.
Hands shot up.
“Beavers?” asked one student.
“Turtles,” said another.
Rubbo explained to students how trash travels from the streets, through the storm drains, into the creek and then to the river.
“Your actions have an impact on your environment around you,” said Rubbo, who, along with the students, removed beer cans, soda bottles and other trash from the Fallkill on Tuesday.
Rubbo recently took part in the city’s first annual Creek Week – an August event which included outreach, education and a series of watershed clean-ups throughout the area. During the week, Rubbo, along with Krieger Elementary School teacher Skip Hoover and Poughkeepsie High School’s No Child Left Inside students, conducted two-day rapid trash assessments of four creek locations in the city, removing bicycles, diapers and even a road sign from the creek.
“I’ve seen people pollute in the parks,” said Sheafe student Luz Primo, who learned about how runoff transports trash from the streets to the watershed. “I’m going to tell people to stop polluting when I see them, because it’s hurting the environment,” she said.
River runners
Using Web-based distance learning video technology, students from each site will be able to share the data they have collected, while viewing data taken by other students along the river, which will give them a better understanding of how each piece of the river fits into the larger Hudson estuary ecosystem.
Last year more than 2,000 students participated in Day in the Life of the Hudson River, and this year, for the first time, teachers can continue to use the river as a centerpiece of science, math, social studies and language arts lessons in the classroom with newly developed Hudson River Lesson Plans.
“It is critically important to get students into the river,” said Kristin Marcell of the DEC Estuary Program. “This gives them a chance to get into the river, and to get in touch with it,” she said.
This is Marcell’s first year as a “runner” – an estuary program employee who visits sites and collects student data. Waryas Park was her first stop. Armed with a camera, and ready to answer students’ questions, she explained that the samples collected at each site would later be analyzed by scientists at Columbia University.
“‘A Day in the Life of the Hudson River’ thrives on partnerships between schools, state agencies and organizations throughout the Hudson Valley,” said DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis. “It highlights the cooperative learning and discovery that is at the heart of the upcoming 2009 Quadricentennial celebration of Henry Hudson’s historic journey up the river.”
By next year’s celebration, the DEC Estuary Program aims to make a riverfront field station accessible to every school district in the Hudson Valley, while increasing the program’s curriculum offerings so that schools throughout the region can focus attention on the history and ecology of the riverfront throughout the anniversary year, program officials said.