Using urban harbors for experiential, environmental literacy: Case studies of New York and Chesapeake Bay

Field-based, hands-on experiential learning is a mainstay of meaningful environmental science education throughout a student’s school career. Engaging K-12 students in field-based, experiential learning can help develop true passion and commitment to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) subjects, allowing students to apply their skills and content knowledge in an authentic, experiential context while enhancing many academic skills and engaging them in contextualized learning across disciplines. To develop an environmentally literate population, and to solve the increasingly complex environmental issues facing society, there is a need to increase students’ access to environmental education field experiences and to connect these outdoor experiences to relevant curricula within the classroom. This is especially important in urban environments, where citizens and students may be less connected on a day-to-day basis with nature. Examples of programs in two regions that model this approach are the Billion Oyster Project-Curriculum and Community Enterprise for Restoration Science STEM-C-Project (STEM, plus computing), in New York City, and the combined efforts of the Maryland Environmental Literacy Partnership (MELP) and the NOAA Bay-Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) program, both of which focus on the Chesapeake Bay, its watershed, and Baltimore Harbor. Both regions have invested in education programs that take advantage of their harbor/waterway locations and their maritime cultures and histories. The NYC program centers around ‘Oyster Restoration Stations’ visited by middle-school students and citizen scientists, who use a common set of protocols and a matching digital platform interface to record data including water quality and oyster biology. The Chesapeake programs, utilize both public and private partnerships to support teachers in designing inquiry-based field investigations to support curriculum underpinning the nation’s first state mandated environmental literacy requirement for high school graduation. These two regional programs provide models for implementing experiential hands-on learning in environmental science and ecology for other urban areas.