It’s that time of the year when our SLURRP students put their knowledge into action! In our final SLURRP outreach, the education team is helping fifth grade students connect everything they have learned about their schoolshed, the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, and runoff pollution. We culminate this knowledge with an action day, which teaches students that they have power to make a difference in their community. Students participate in a trash clean-up of school property. In addition, they stencil storm drains with messages that bring awareness to the fact that polluted stormwater will lead to the Chesapeake Bay. Below are photos from our outreach at Cherry Hill Elementary-Middle. Students collected over 60 pounds of trash, and stenciled five storm drains throughout their school community!
We had an amazing time during our last SLURRP outreach with New Era Academy for this season. During this outreach, students were able to connect everything they learned from our previous lessons, as well as their field trip to Masonville Cove Environmental Education Center. Students were able to take on the role of an environmental/civil engineer or city planner and design best management practices (BMPs) for storm drains. The students used different filtration materials (such as cotton balls and fabric) to design a storm drain filter that filters out the most pollutants from water while requiring the least amount of money. Every student had a budget of five imaginary dollars for their filters. They designed filters above and below makeshift storm drains and used a water sample polluted with dirt, oil, food die, and pieces of plastic to test run their designs. After a great holiday break and a lovely snow day, the education team kicked off our second round of SLURRP outreaches! Today, we spent the morning in Federal Hill Preparatory School. Students went outside and used GPS devices to locate and map out storm drains on the school yard. When we returned to the classroom, we brainstormed different methods the school can use to reduce runoff.
The SLURRP education team had a great time starting our lesson series with high school students at New Era Academy. We introduced the concepts of watersheds and stormwater runoff and had students brainstorm the types of pollution that comes from different sources. Pictured to the right is a photo of students using an EnviroScape watershed model to demonstrate how runoff pollution ends up in waterways. We have officially kicked off our RE-SLURRP season with 5th grade students. We started our first lesson with students at Cherry Hill Elementary/Middle School. Students reviewed SLURRP 4th grade content and then went outside to grade their schoolyard with a “runoff report card.” Students looked for negative impacts such as types of runoff pollution and surfaces that create more runoff. They also looked for positive impacts such as gardens and trees that help reduce pollution. Pictured below is Ms. Valerie helping students with their runoff report cards.
5th grade students at Lakeland Elementary School spent the day taking an action step on their school yard. They participated in storm drain stenciling. They wanted everyone in their community to know that what goes into the storm drains ends up in our waterways.
Our 4th grade students were challenged to create a trash interceptor. Students worked in design teams, developed a blueprint, and engineered a trash interceptor to prevent trash from entering Masonville Cove. They also had a whole lot of fun during the process!
During the spring months, our 5th grade SLURRP students have been learning about oysters, oyster gardens, their life cycle, how they provide habitat, and how they filter the water. These students are looking at the habitat the oyster provides. This student found spat and barnacle scars on her oyster!
Students in Ms. Redditt's 4th Grade Class investigated two water samples under the microscope, as they learned the difference between storm drains and sewers.
Over the past two months, SLURRP schools came out to Masonville Cove for field trips. Students received a meaningful watershed experience as they worked in our college level labs as well as out on our property. Students used microscopes during a plankton studies lesson, learned about the journey of plastic in our waterways, looked for animal evidence on our property, and became citizen scientists as they participated in a shoreline clean up! |
AuthorMs. Ashley Archives
April 2019
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