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I'm what you would call a veteran teacher. This year I started my fourteenth year teaching. I've taught in California, Arizona, and now in Maryland, including four school districts and five schools. I've taken just about every workshop, training, and in-service that I could squeeze into my free-time-deprived schedule. But when the opportunity to take the Bridging the Watershed (BTW) Summer Institute was offered to me, I jumped. I wasn't sorry; this was the most well organized, informative, action packed, and fun training I've ever experienced.
So, on June 23, 2002, about 40 area science teachers and park rangers converged in Accokeek at Hard Bargain Farm for our overnight kickoff event. Here we were introduced to the activities that would follow over the next week and to each other. The goal was to become familiar with the Potomac Watershed and look at water quality, native and invasive species, geology, and history.
From the start, we learned of techniques that would help enhance our day-to-day science instruction in the classroom with map reading, journaling, activating activities, and quiet reflection. Over the next five days, we explored activities that support the five modules - Assessing Macroinvertebrates, Exotic Species, Water Quality, Sedimentation and Run-Off, and Looking at Trash - that have been developed and are ready to use in area schools.
For me the hardest thing was journaling. I still remember Nancy Smaroff's (BTW's Director) first assignment for us to draw a lightning storm. I thought, "uh-oh, I can't draw," but then we were able to describe it verbally and after the initial fright, I was okay. Later that night, we ate a wonderful dinner suitable for carnivores and herbivores alike, took a short hike to the Potomac where we studied some botany, and later returned to retire to our bunks.
Morning revele was early as we had a long day ahead of us: a walking historical tour of President's Park to places I had walked many times before then, overlooking the small monuments that suddenly had new meaning. A trip up in the Washington Monument not only served to get the bird's eye view of the watershed but also helped me picture Washington, D.C. back when it was farmland.
During the next five days, we visited Rock Creek Park, Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve, Turkey Run Park along the George Washington Memorial Parkway, Great Falls Tavern and River Gorge, and canoed down the Anacostia River. At each site, we took basic metrological data and global positioning. At the sites with water, we did water quality monitoring and looked at macroinvertebrates.
It was a workshop of superlatives, and now I look forward to sharing part of that wonderful experience with my students at Northwest High School in Germantown, Maryland. Once you have the training, you can sign up for any or all of the five modules and receive further training on them. Then, once you have taken the specific module training, you can have Laura Gillespie back at the BTW office set up the field study for your classes. With this out-of-classroom, real world science it won't be hard to turn students on to their environment.
You are probably wondering when the next training is. Find out in this newsletter and sign up. Don't miss out on this fantastic program that brings together teachers, park rangers, BTW staff, and students.
