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Students study 'A Day in the Life of the Hudson'
  
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By Bob Green
For Hudson-Catskill Newspapers
"It's for the sake of science," said environmental educator Chelsea Benson as she led a group of children ankle deep into the Hudson River. Their goal was to collect exact measurements including tide and turbidity. Soaked footwear included pink sneakers, crocs, and an assortment of running shoes.
The children at Stuyvesant Landing on this glimmering fall Thursday joined more than 3,000 others at 60 sites up and down the river for "A Day In the Life Of the Hudson." Now in its seventh year, the event seeks to connect communities to waterfront, and to involve students in gathering data for use in their own studies, and also by researchers.
"They arrive as students and leave as scientists," says Fran Dunwell, program coordinator for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation's Hudson River Estuary Program, which funds the event. Among the students involved are many who "have never been to the river, or even if they have, haven't been in it" she said. This "intimate experience" with the water is available to "students of all nations" living in places that are urban, suburban, and rural, from New York Harbor to Troy.
Here in Stuyvesant, the children made a short hike to a sandy beach where they split up into two teams. One, led by Benson, education program coordinator for the Columbia County Soil and Water District, focused on a long list of physical characteristics like temperatures, currents, the amount of sediment in the water and even what type of fish might be gathered by a dragged net.
Some students were charged with drawing the surroundings, which included passing watercraft ranging from kayaks to pleasure boats to an empty fuel barge riding high on the trip back downriver.
The other group, led by Leanna O'Grady of the soil and water district, took on the task of chemical measurements including dissolved oxygen, alkalinity, and salinity. An array of test tubes and eye droppers were deployed, with each child waiting a different period of time for their particular test to be ready to read.
To make this program a reality, the DEC partners with Columbia University's Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory and with 30 other organizations who provide sampling sites and resources, educators, and connections to local schools and students. Related curriculum and lesson plans are available. Most of the young people on the beach in Stuyvesant were from the Alternative Learning Center, a program in Ghent for the home-schooled. Their families collectively rent space at a community center and a church for group activities.
Regionwide, participating schools range from elementary to high school. Public and private schools, small and large, have all participated. The program has touched over 20,000 students over the years, according to Dunwell, who is also a noted author and scholar on the role of the Hudson River in American history and culture.
She says today's students have plenty in common with Henry Hudson. Like him, they are discovering, measuring and recording, and "exploring just like he did," all in order to answer important questions of their time. "Each generation sees the river though its own eyes" she told the Register-Star.
DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis said one of his priorities is to provide “high quality and unique outdoor experiences” for students.
For more information on "Day In The Life Of The Hudson," www.dec.ny.gov/lands/47285.html.
The children at Stuyvesant Landing on this glimmering fall Thursday joined more than 3,000 others at 60 sites up and down the river for "A Day In the Life Of the Hudson." Now in its seventh year, the event seeks to connect communities to waterfront, and to involve students in gathering data for use in their own studies, and also by researchers.
"They arrive as students and leave as scientists," says Fran Dunwell, program coordinator for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation's Hudson River Estuary Program, which funds the event. Among the students involved are many who "have never been to the river, or even if they have, haven't been in it" she said. This "intimate experience" with the water is available to "students of all nations" living in places that are urban, suburban, and rural, from New York Harbor to Troy.
Here in Stuyvesant, the children made a short hike to a sandy beach where they split up into two teams. One, led by Benson, education program coordinator for the Columbia County Soil and Water District, focused on a long list of physical characteristics like temperatures, currents, the amount of sediment in the water and even what type of fish might be gathered by a dragged net.
Some students were charged with drawing the surroundings, which included passing watercraft ranging from kayaks to pleasure boats to an empty fuel barge riding high on the trip back downriver.
The other group, led by Leanna O'Grady of the soil and water district, took on the task of chemical measurements including dissolved oxygen, alkalinity, and salinity. An array of test tubes and eye droppers were deployed, with each child waiting a different period of time for their particular test to be ready to read.
To make this program a reality, the DEC partners with Columbia University's Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory and with 30 other organizations who provide sampling sites and resources, educators, and connections to local schools and students. Related curriculum and lesson plans are available. Most of the young people on the beach in Stuyvesant were from the Alternative Learning Center, a program in Ghent for the home-schooled. Their families collectively rent space at a community center and a church for group activities.
Regionwide, participating schools range from elementary to high school. Public and private schools, small and large, have all participated. The program has touched over 20,000 students over the years, according to Dunwell, who is also a noted author and scholar on the role of the Hudson River in American history and culture.
She says today's students have plenty in common with Henry Hudson. Like him, they are discovering, measuring and recording, and "exploring just like he did," all in order to answer important questions of their time. "Each generation sees the river though its own eyes" she told the Register-Star.
DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis said one of his priorities is to provide “high quality and unique outdoor experiences” for students.
For more information on "Day In The Life Of The Hudson," www.dec.ny.gov/lands/47285.html.
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