The Program – designed and implemented by experienced, certified teachers – is a three-session series for fourth, fifth and sixth graders that addresses STEM and a sampling of Common Core/NYS Education Department standards.   Aidable through BOCES, the Long Island Water Education Program has consistently received enthusiastic feedback from teachers and students alike.

The program is composed of two classroom sessions and a field trip.  In the one-hour hands-on class sessions students:

• Learn about our aquifer (where our drinking water comes from)
• Build mini models of the aquifer
• Experiment to see how recharge and contamination happen
• Study precipitation and runoff by simulating rain on permeable and impermeable surfaces
• Learn the role land conservation plays in protecting our ground and surface waters

At our Shore Road Sanctuary groups of students rotate through stations including:

• review of runoff concepts at stormwater outlet
• coastal ecosystem investigation with an emphasis on mutualistic relationships
• a pollination game at the pollinator garden where they learn about the benefits of and threats to bees and butterflies
• grassland habitat exploration focusing on the food chain
• poetry writing about nature