CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL DISTRICT OF NEW BRITAIN FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact: Helen Yung District Communications Specialist (860) 832-4382, cell (860) 877-4552
[email protected] URBAN AND SUBURBAN TEENAGERS TAKE TEAM WORK AND DIVERSITYTO NEW HEIGHTS ATOP HUBLEIN TOWER (SIMSBURY, CT)—Climbing Hublein Tower at the Talcott Mountain State Park was the least of the challenges for a group of 35 middle and high school students conducting geological field studies along the Metacomet Ridge on July 15. The students, from six school districts dispersed from New Britain to the greater Hartford area are enrolled in the Metacomet Ridge Interdistrict Academy (MRIA). The MRIA program is funded through the State Department of Education Interdistrict Cooperative Grant and managed by CREC (Capital Region Education Council), have the task of studying the environment of the Metacomet Ridge, a rocky ridge that rises above the Connecticut Valley and stretches from Long Island Sound to far above the Massachusetts/Connecticut border. According to Dr. Nalini Munshi, lead teacher at Roosevelt Middle School’s S.T.E.M Academy, the students conducted a land cover testing that includes a site of 30 by 30 meters square squares at the bottom of Talcott Mountain State Park. The students with assistance from NBHS Teachers Joe Bosco, III and Robert Ramsey feed their data into an international website for scientists known as the Globe network, where in Scientists can access it and use it for their own research. The work that the students do is considered real time science. Referring to the land cover testing, Dr. Munshi said, “we calculate the canopy cover and ground cover and measure the height of the dominant and co dominant tree species.