DC BayWatch
"I recommend Discovery Creek’s DC BayWatch program for all DC Public
School third through sixth grade students. All students should be mandated to
take part in this model program that integrates science, literacy, and hands-on
learning."
- Marti Goldstone, Teacher, Horace Mann Elementary School, involved with Discovery Creek since 1998
DC BayWatch is an interactive outreach program that teaches
young learners the science, culture, and philosophy behind conserving a precious
resource of the Washington region - the Chesapeake Bay. This six-part program
is comprised of a comprehensive science curriculum designed by the Museum's
experienced education staff.
DC BayWatch provides an opportunity for underserved children of the Washington, DC
area to discover the importance
of water resource conservation as well as the crucial role they, as students,
play in connection with the Chesapeake Bay watershed. In partnership with the
organizations mentioned below, this unprecedented program series includes the following
activities:
- Students learn about their connection to the water cycle and how it affects the health
of their local watershed through a stream survey conducted in Discovery Creek's
Walking Through Your Watershed program.
- Students explore the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers
while testing the water and pulling up a haul of local fish.
- At the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Maryland, children don chest waders
and seine the Rhode River, pull a plankton tow to investigate the water's microscopic
life, investigate a living oyster community, and go crabbing for the Chesapeake's
famous Blue Crabs.
- In the Wetlands Safari program at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens,
students get up close and personal with wetlands by dissecting cattails to examine
adaptations of wetland plants and explore the Gardens to learn about the local wildlife.
- Teachers participate in two professional workshops in which they receive supplemental
curriculum materials to use in the classroom before and after each
DC BayWatch
field trip experience. The reinforcement of concepts learned at each trip through
the classroom activities brings together the "big picture" for students and
allows the program to influence their learning long after the program has ended.
Discovery Creek's goals in providing this program are for students
and teachers to:
- Experience hands-on scientific study of the Chesapeake Bay watershed in
the field;
- Associate the life systems that depend upon good water quality; and
- Become stewards of the Chesapeake Bay watershed and the natural environment.
Discovery Creek's DC BayWatch program gives children tools
for self-discovery and encourages them to become leaders who will preserve and
protect the environment for future generations.
For more information about
DC BayWatch, please call the office at
(202)
337-5111 or
send
an email. To make a donation in support of this vital program,
please
click here.
