January 2013: SoundWaters shares teaching methods with area environmental educators
SoundWaters educators shared teaching methods with other environmental education groups at the 3rd Annual REED (“Regional Environmental Educator Day”.) Drawing upon our creative science-based curriculum, educators presented hands-on activities that showcase our use of water quality and Long Island Sound animals as examples of teaching tools designed for all age groups.
With elementary school students, for example, our team guides students to use hydrometers to test salinity in various water samples to help them learn to identify the difference between fresh and brackish water. At the middle school level, students test water quality parameters such as oxygen levels and nitrates as a means to analyze how these parameters affect life in Long Island Sound.
The area educators were particularly engaged by our Long Island Sound ambassadors featured in nearly all our education programs, the horseshoe crab, terrapin, snails and other marine animals that educators brought to the Bartlett Arboretum & Garden, which hosted the event. In fact, some had never held a live horseshoe crab. This hands-on experience often produces an emotional connection that motivates children (and adults) to learn scientific concepts associated with the animals: Preschoolers taking the first steps toward science literacy examine examine and respond to the color and shape of animals while older students compare and contrast characteristics, behaviors and adaptations.
It is not uncommon for SoundWaters educators to teach more than 100 students at a time; this feat is accomplished by dividing and rotating students through carefully developed indoor and outdoor learning stations. Because SoundWaters Coastal Education Center is located on Long Island Sound, students can conduct year-round experiments and activities in the Learning Lab and Teaching Aquarium and experience outdoor seining and studies of coastal habitats such as salt marsh, sandy beach and rocky shore—in a single day. All of this helps to make SoundWaters the # 1 choice of schools that study Long Island Sound.
