Bay Watershed Education and Training (BWET)
Chesapeake Studies for Gloucester, Mathews, and York Counties: Linking Field Trips with the Classroom
The objective of the Chesapeake Studies project is to provide every 7th grade student in Gloucester, Mathews, and York Counties with a meaningful Chesapeake Bay experience that is deeply integrated into the classroom. Chesapeake Studies is used to address 7th grade Virginia Life Science SOL’s in an applied context in order to familiarize the students with the estuarine environments that surround them, with marine biology, and with restoration methods. The Chesapeake Bay is the focal point throughout the school year by linking field trips to the classroom with in-class presentations, marine science investigations, using real-time data, and experiments using organisms and data collected in the field. Water quality monitoring is also emphasized in relation to the Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Virginia’s (CBNERR) monitoring program. Six middle schools are included in this project. Throughout the school year, each school receives classroom lessons given by CBNERR education staff, a field trip to CBNERR educational facilities for each of its students, and classroom aquaria for use in science experiments.
