Suffolk County School Districts to Start Land Stewardship Program with Brookhaven Lab
August 22, 2006
UPTON, NY - In September, twenty-eight teachers from eleven Suffolk County school districts will launch the GREEN Institute Open Space Stewardship Program in their schools. GREEN stands for "Gaining Research Experience in the Environment." The new program, initiated by the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, aims to foster partnerships between schools and land stewards in their local communities. Students in grades K through 12 will perform environmental research on undeveloped land owned either by a public or private agency.
enlarge
Teachers who attended the summer training session for the GREEN Institute Open Space Stewardship Program gather in the abundant open space at Brookhaven Lab's 5,300-acre campus, along with staff in Brookhaven's Office of Educational Programs and representatives from the Town of Brookhaven, the Suffolk County Parks Department, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Preserve. (Click image to download hi-res version.)
Melvyn Morris, an educational administrator at Brookhaven Lab's Office of Educational Programs, said, "This program will benefit land stewards in the management of their property and help students to learn about the scientific process through working with real-life data in the field. Ideally, the program will promote scientific literacy and encourage students to consider careers in science and technology. Further, it should foster a sense of civic responsibility and respect for open space property in participating students."
Three teachers who attended Brookhaven Lab's six-week summer Laboratory Science Teacher Professional Development Program - Amy Meyer from William Floyd High School in Mastic Beach, Laura Opitz from North Country Middle School in Miller Place, and Ivan Suarez from Longwood High School in Middle Island - taught the basic protocols of both water and soil testing to the other 25 teachers in a one-week Open Space Stewardship training program sponsored by Brookhaven Lab. Also, students in the program will become familiar with using a Global Positioning System, which is a satellite-based navigation system; and a Geographical Information System, which is a system of computer-based data for displaying and analyzing geographical information. For example, roads and waterways on a parcel of land can be linked with environmental data related to birds and other wildlife for a better understanding of how they affect each other. This information may be used for research and for land-use planning.
The teachers in each school will integrate the basic sampling protocols into their own curriculum. Student-collected data will be archived in a publicly available database. Students will also present their research at an annual public forum to be held at Brookhaven Lab.
The program is not limited to science teachers. "An English teacher attended our one-week session," Morris said. "There are opportunities for interdisciplinary studies on open lands, involving literature, poetry, photography, art, history, and adopt-a-tree programs."
Three land stewards participated in the one-week program: the Town of Brookhaven, the Suffolk County Parks Department, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Among the properties that will be sites of the Open Space Stewardship Program are Warbler Woods Preserve in Yaphank, Carman's River, Miller Place Pond, and the salt marshes in Mount Sinai Harbor.
The school districts represented at the one-week workshop were: East Hampton, Middle Country, Longwood, Mount Sinai, Miller Place, Patchogue-Medford, Riverhead, Sachem, Shoreham-Wading River, Southampton, and William Floyd.
2006-10526 | INT/EXT | Newsroom
