Students Work to Save the River
“The balance of nature is built of a series of interrelationships between living things. You can’t just step in with some brute force and change one thing without changing a good many others.”
~Rachel Carson
A group of 4th graders assumed the role of student environmentalists and create a public service announcement to make citizens and policy makers aware of the concerns regarding the early opening date of shipping on the St. Lawrence Seaway. Students synthesized information from the ecology unit and created a video to voice their opinions, concerns, and facts regarding shipping on the St. Lawrence River.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/a_-2eETv-1g" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
Shortly after posting the video on YouTube and sharing the link with the Save the River organization and biologist from the NYS DEC, I received this email.
Hello Ms. Smith,
I’m an old retired fishery biologist who worked for the NYSDEC. I used to work on the fisheries research vessel the R/V SETH GREEN. I spent many days and nights working nearby to Webster. In all I worked 35 years on Lake Ontario and loved every minute of my work.
During that time, I saw many environmental presentations, and I made a number of presentations myself. I traveled throughout the Great Lakes and I was also lucky to get to know many very good scientists, both Canadian and American.
At this point you are probably wondering where I’m going with this little email. The point I want to make is that I’ve been around the “Lakes” and I’m familiar with most of the issues and I’ve seen many environmental presentations.
Given my background, it should mean more to your class when I say that in all those years I don’t think I’ve seen a better presentation of an environmental issue than what your class did with the seaway opening video.
Would you please, stand in front of your students and shout, “Class, you’ve got class!” Their video was eye-catching and appealing, their information was accurate and up-to-date, and your student’s presentations were passionate, professional and entertaining. If there is a grade better than A+, you need to give it to your students.
Please tell your class that they have done more than a super job. I hope all of them feel good about what they’ve done, and I also hope that some of them might think about a future career in environmental science — New York and other states and provinces will need good people, like your students, to work on the Great Lakes on vessels like the SETH GREEN.
As you know, Ms. Smith, your class did a classy job, because they had a very classy teacher. You should be very proud. Tell your superintendent to give you a raise immediately (I was also a school board member, too).
Best wishes to a great group of student environmentalists and a great teacher.
Warm Regards,
Clif Schneider
Cape Vincent, NY
Much thanks to Clif for allowing me to share his kind words and acknowledgement of the hard work and effort these students put into their project. I have no doubt that each of these students will continue to be responsible stewards of our environment and perhaps one day pursue a career in the sciences. We’ll certainly need kids like this taking charge of the issues facing our Earth in the coming years.
6 Responses to 'Students Work to Save the River'
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on March 4th, 2008 at 10:01 am
Wendy, this is the sort of thing I was thinking of when I spoke of narrative forms of assessment. This e-mail is a piece of assessment data that provides evidence of the effectiveness of what you are doing.
JS
on March 4th, 2008 at 10:15 am
Thanks Jim. I never would have thought of using an outside email as a data source. I have three more similar emails from others in the Thousand Islands area that I could also reference. I’m meeting with our “data expert” again on Thursday and will pass this idea along.
on March 6th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Dear Fourth Grade Students and Teacher,
Congratulations on a job well done. A major lesson for 4th grade and I am confident you all will remember it for a long time. Should you have need for a brief geography lesson, my interest in the waters of the Saint Lawrence River stem from not only a home on Wellesley Island (where the 1000 Islands bridge crosses the river to Canada) but also I am a resident of Chicago, Il on the shores of Lake Michigan. Hopefully, many fourth grade teachers throughout the Great Lakes will see this and do something similar for their classes. The geography is fun when you look at the heights of the lakes and the flows of water from Lakes Superior and Lake Michigan through Huron, Erie and Ontario and ultimately out the Saint Lawrence River. About twenty percent of the WORLDS surface fresh water so it is critical that our fourth graders throughout the region learn your lesson.
Thank you,
Teddy McNally
on March 21st, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Hi! Thank you so much for creating this wonderful documentary about the St. Lawrence River and the concerns with early shipping. I am very impressed with the work of your Fourth Grade class and am very happy that a fellow colleague brought the video to my attention. My fourth graders will be viewing the video on our class blog next week and making comments. Thank you for doing such a terrific job and being considered with the environment!
on April 28th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
As an Architect I am responsible for the built environment and doing that is my chosen career and brings joy to my life. You young children are the future caretakers of our true environment and I commend you. With no environment there would be no room for a built one!
on April 29th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Ted, Mrs. Bearup, and Daniel,
The kids thank you for your comments and for taking the time to watch their video. They are learning, however, that not all comments are positive. They recently received a letter from Collister Johnson Jr., of the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation/US. Dept. of Transportation who wrote that the video, “…contains allegations and assertions that are simply not accurate, nor based on science. In a work, it is propaganda.”
The students have written a letter in reply to Mr. Johnson and once we hear back I’ll be writing another post on the topic.
Thanks again for recognizing the work of these students.
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