Teachers from New York to West Virginia are taking their classrooms to a remote island in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. Students get hands-on environmental learning while experiencing some Lord of the Flies moments.
Eighteen seventh graders from rural Virginia are dredging for oysters on a windy, cold day. A few are seasick but when the oysters are hauled up they rise to the occasion.
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Fox Island is about as far away from a classroom as you can get. And that's the point for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which owns it. The kids get wet and slimy all while their teacher, two biologists, and a waterman instruct from beaches, boats and marshes. Biologist Pete Butz blends a little history in with the science. "When Captain John Smith came through here he could see 20 feet clear to the bottom, but now we think six feet is a pretty good depth to be able to see down into the water."
CBF was given the island in the 1970s. It came with a bare bones 1920s hunting lodge that sits on pilings. Teachers come during the summer to train with CBF's Bill Portlock. "It's a five-day class and then the teachers develop a unit, a workplan of how they will use the bay or the rivers in teaching their students."
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Research backs the positive affects of getting kids outside. Portlock, who's been teaching for 21 years, says hands-on learning boosts retention in students while cutting down on absenteeism. "Individuals and state agencies embrace the idea that students should be outside more for health and well-being but also to develop those environmental ethics that lead to good stewardship."
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