| "When kids get involved in an issue they learn more, get more excited, and are enthusiastic about what they're learning." | |
| Polly Chandler, Brookwood School |
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Ensuring that the upcoming generation understands environmental issues and is engaged in the management process is a high priority for many coastal programs. Coastal resource managers in Massachusetts created a model interdisciplinary program where 5th through 8th grade students investigate an issue relating to coastal access and develop age-appropriate responses.
"When kids get involved in an issue they learn more, get more excited, and are enthusiastic about what they're learning," says Polly Chandler, developer of the program curriculum and head of the science department at Brookwood School in Manchester, Massachusetts, one of the model sites.
The Classroom to Coast program was designed to engage students in real-world experiences and build critical thinking skills. Teachers participating in the program bring together science, social studies, and the arts to help students explore all facets of a coastal access-related issue. It recently won an Excellence in Environmental Education Award from the Secretary of Massachusetts' Executive Office of Environmental Affairs.
Heather Clish, assistant North Shore regional coordinator for Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management, says the idea for the program developed out of a discussion between staffs of the coastal program and the Department of Environmental Management about developing ways to increase public awareness of coastal access. "Public access is a huge issue in Massachusetts. Here, property owners own down to the low-tide line. The intertidal area is only in the public trust for fishing, fowling, and navigating."
The departments contracted with Chandler to create the Classroom to Coast curriculum, which provides a basic format for a coastal access issue investigation that can be tailored to individual needs, interests, and time constraints. The program curriculum is consistent with the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks for Science and Technology, English Language Arts, History, and Social Science.
To complement the curriculum, the coastal program developed a resource directory that contains contact information for federal, state, and local agencies, as well as nonprofit organizations that might assist students in their investigations. The directory also provides ideas for grant opportunities and information about public transit to coastal locations.
During the 1997/98 school year, Chandler and two other teachers participated in the program, and five teachers did elements of the program. Clish says one class based its investigation on the conflict between people who want dogs to roam free on the beach and those who feel animals should be banned or leashed on town beaches. Another project focused on public access through the eyes of "futurists" and students developed ideas for what they would like to see on their central waterfront in 2013. The third group of students based their investigation on the conflicts that arise out of the need to protect the endangered piping plover and the public's desire to go to the same beaches where the birds nest.
Two teachers are participating in the program this school year. Many of the projects involve field experiences; surveying; data collection and interpretation; interviewing public officials, developers, scientists, and members of the public; discerning between opinion and fact; and preparing and delivering presentations.
"A major success of the program is that the students learned they can make a difference," Clish says. "They now understand what role the coast plays in a community, and the impact of coastal access on that. It's really helping them connect to the coast."
For more information about Classroom to Coast, contact Heather Clish at (978) 281-3972 or Heather.Clish@state.ma.us.
