Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences (2019) 9:322–326 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-018-0530-5

Environmental habitat restoration and inquiry-based learning with City public schools—an urban model in STEM education

Lauren Birney 1 & John Cronin1

Published online: 5 December 2018 # AESS 2018

Abstract The tension between academic rigor and real-world relevance is a long-standing struggle in the world of education. Never has that tension been greater than the present day, when metrics about student academic success and pressure about career preparation are each the subject of increased scrutiny. STEM education straddles this debate, demanding an equal measure of both rigor and relevance. Therein lies its unique challenge. Beyond the familiar vocabulary of job training, linked learning, and twenty-first century skills, STEM teachers must create a combined learning experience that has no precedent in education. In addition to improving student proficiency in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, they must deliver the real-world component of the STEM curriculum, often a daunting task. Here, the authors maintain that American waterways, near which the vast majority of the U.S. population lives, are ideal STEM classrooms that can fulfill the interdisciplinary and experiential goals of STEM while helping schools rediscover the larger environmental community. The authors present their experience with the Curriculum and Community Enterprise for New York Harbor Restoration in Public Schools (CCERS), a program of student education and teacher training through direct participation in the planning and physical implementation of oyster restoration in New York Harbor. They argue that if STEM’s promise is that society will reap the benefits of a future job force and future innovation, community professionals such as scientists, engineers, policy makers, and more have a duty to participate as volunteer adjuncts to help implement such programs in local school systems, particularly in underserved communities.

Keywords Environmental restoration . Citizen science . Habitat science . STEM education . Inquiry-based learning . Community partnerships

The natural affinity between STEM education and the envi- American Association for Environmental Education), partic- ronment presents an ideal opportunity to deliver on STEM’s ularly in the nation’s coastal communities. According to the promise—to develop in students the talents and skills that lead National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, by to careers, power the economy, and benefit community 2020, 47% of the nation’s population will live in counties that (National Research Council 2011, p. 3). In this regard, the adjoin the coast (National Oceanic and Atmospheric nation’s coastal areas have the potential to serve as extended Administration 2017). Flooding and sea level rise are an in- classrooms in a new era of STEM. creasing threat (IPCC Working Panel II: Intergovernmental Environmentally oriented STEM programs can provide Panel on Climate Change 2014) and traditional efforts to con- that opportunity (National Institute of Environmental Health serve and restore marine resources have proven inadequate Sciences 2017; National Wildlife Federation and NYC Eco- (Lotze et al. 2006, pp. 1806–1809). Schools Green STEM Advisory Board 2015;TheNorth Andrew Light (2003) argues that environmental philoso- phy should aim to serve policy makers and the public to re- solve environmental problems. Ecological restoration efforts * Lauren Birney ought to encourage public participation in order to restore not [email protected] only the environment but also mend mankind’srelationship with nature. As evidenced across the country, citizen-based John Cronin efforts to restore species and habitat are becoming the new [email protected] norm. BBringing native species back from the brink^ is a 1 , One Pace Plaza, New York, NY 10038, USA continuing initiative of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation J Environ Stud Sci (2019) 9:322–326 323

(Chesapeake Bay Foundation). On San Francisco Bay, experts this arena and establishing support structures at the middle and citizens are restoring the transition zone habitat of the Bay school and high levels that allow students to conduct real time estuary (Save San Francisco Bay). At Tampa Bay, volunteers data collection and advanced research are critical components and scientists have set a goal of restoring 12,350 acres of of this program (NSF DRL 1440869 and NSF DRL 1643016). seagrass (Tampa Bay Watch). On Nantucket Bay, the commu- This support from the National Science Foundation has given nity initiative to restore a sustainable native scallop population students in New York City public schools the opportunity to is driven equally by ecological concern, loyalty to tradition, explore careers in STEM education while enhancing and restor- and regional economics (Nantucket Shellfish Association). ing the local habitat congruently. This research came together as STEM education demands equal measures of rigor and the result of collaborations and common interest in STEM relevance. In addition to improving student proficiency in Education, environmental restoration of New York Harbor, the academics of Science, Technology, Engineering, and and ultimately providing students with the opportunity to con- Math, STEM education must deliver on the combined promise duct research at the water’s edge while gaining pertinent of job skills, real-world application, college preparation, com- STEM-related skills. Ultimately, these collaborative partner- munity inclusiveness, and even areas of specialization ships focus on providing underrepresented students with oppor- (National Research Council 2011,p.6–9). According to tunities to pursue careers in STEM Education. Matsuba and Pratt (2013), BEarly and sustained experiences in natural environments that are socially facilitated are be- lieved to be critical factors in constructing the self and worlds Setting the stage for a new type of STEM of activists in which the natural environment features so prom- inently. These situated and sustained experiences in nature are New York Harbor School is a key BOP CCERS educational likely to be important in the development of people’senviron- partner. Its curriculum is worthy of note, not because of its mental identities as they pass through adolescence into emerg- location—hundreds of schools are in proximity to water—but ing adulthood, and narrate this journey as part of their life because of what it has done with that extended classroom. The story.^ A STEM program partnered with environmental res- core courses of the Harbor School are what one might expect toration projects such as these can offer students the opportu- at any secondary school—English, Mathematics, Social nity to engage in the development, application, and innovation Studies, Sciences (Abbott 2014; New York City Department of solutions that address real-world environmental problems, of Education; University of the State of New York - New York in their own communities, on their native waters. And given State Education Department 2017). The similarity ends there. the large number of major urban areas located in coastal com- On a given day, at the school’s docks, students may be pre- munities, partnerships with such programs also provide the paring oyster shells for later planting, while others are up to ready opportunity to engage and educate underserved their elbows in diesel engine repair. A full boat will depart to populations. conduct a scuba diving class, followed by another that will The Billion Oyster Project Curriculum and Community deploy real-time monitoring equipment for measuring water Enterprise for New York Harbor Restoration in New York quality (Miller 2013; New York Harbor School). City Public Schools (BOP CCERS) was created for just these The experience of Jessie Floyd, valedictorian of the Class reasons. Funded by the National Science Foundation and head- of 2016, is a worthy illustration. When a freshman in high ed by a triumvirate of Pace University, the Billion Oyster school, she struggled to understand the lecture version of the Project, and New York Harbor School, it engages students chemical reaction that generates electrical current inside a bat- and teachers from throughout the city in a program of environ- tery. History likewise felt two-dimensional. Her vessel opera- mental habitat restoration, marine science, and computational tions course changed all that: science that re-imagines ecological restoration as STEM-based education that integrates betterment of community and the local environment (Janis et al. 2016). Unique though BOP CCERS Chemistry was definitely one of my weaker subjects. may be, its foundation rests in the same human and institutional That morning I had struggled to visualize the inner resources as the restoration efforts cited above, such as local workings of a battery. The lesson that day in vessel scientists, university researchers, marine trades, policy experts, ops had been batteries and energy. Seeing the two andacitizenworkforce—resources available in virtually any twelve volt batteries aboard Indy 7 (the school’slaunch) American urban coastal area. made what I had been taught that morning seem a lot Professors Lauren Birney andJohnCroninatPace more logical. In U.S. History my understanding about University have focused upon creating opportunities for under- the building and workings of canals was strengthened represented students in STEM education with a particular focus by having to maneuver them while working on vessel on environmental habitat restoration through inquiry-based op’s bridge simulator (J. Floyd, personal learning with New York City Public Schools. Public policy in communication, July 15, Floyd 2016). 324 J Environ Stud Sci (2019) 9:322–326

After graduation, Jessie postponed her entry into Bard (Lundin and Lindén 1993, p. 471). Earlier communities more College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, to spend the next year oriented to the outdoors and indigenous industry have given earning enough sea time aboard tall ships to qualify for a 100- way to a life more accustomed to the indoors, and apart from ton captain’slicense. the natural world around them, resulting in a prevailing eco- One might reasonably conclude that the New York Harbor logical illiteracy (Orr 1992,p.87). School is a progressive private institution, sitting comfortably Our educational system does not stand apart from society outside the constraints of government-regulated curricula. In in this regard. The omission of local ecology in curricula in fact, it is a state-approved Career and Technical Education effect teaches students that ecological principles are not rele- high school specializing in marine trades that is part of the vant to their lives and the life of their communities (Orr 1992, New York City public school system (Janis et al. 2016,p. p. 85)—communities that, in fact, would not have been 3), and located on Governor’s Island in New York Harbor. founded were it not for the ecological, economic, and cultural The students of the Harbor School are as diverse as the New assets of their local ecosystems. New York City is no excep- York City school system itself. They gain admittance through tion to these limitations. a lottery. Some start their day as early as 5 AM, to make the subway connections that eventually drop them at Bowling Green Station, a 5-minute walk to the Ferry Terminal. There, the walls echo with the collective cha- Why oysters? os of any group of students waiting for a school bus. But they are waiting for the ferry, the only access to the island. Oysters were once the keystone species of New York Harbor. No longer. Oyster reefs covered more than 220,000 acres of The challenge of connecting to the water the Harbor and its connected estuaries. They were home to perhaps trillions of individual oysters that filtered water, pro- The Harbor School’s setting infuses its curriculum and the vided habitat for other species, and attenuated the wave energy mission of BOP CCERS. From the landward portion of the that daily pounds the shoreline, sometimes with great severity campus, one can watch tugs, barges, tankers, water taxis, during coastal storms. Decades of overharvesting, dredging, ferries, and the occasional schooner traverse the waters that pollution, and habitat destruction eliminated the oyster from compose one of the great natural harbors in the world, all on the harbor ecosystem (Cronin 2017). the backdrop of the lower skyline. Each of the The good news is that the practice of planting and city’s five boroughs touches the reach of the sea—the lower relocating oyster is almost as old as the oyster industry itself. estuary, the tidal pathway oddly named the East Using the time-honored methods, and some newly developed, River, Long Island Sound, the New York Bays, and the ocean the Billion Oyster Project began the methodical process of itself. The Billion Oyster Project, founded to restore New creating oyster reefs, with the goal of establishing an oyster York Harbor’s long-lost oyster populations, is co-located population of one billion distributed among 100 reefs by the within the Harbor School. A 5-minute ferry ride and three year 2035 (Billion Oyster Project 2035). In partnership with subway stops away is Pace University. the Harbor School, BOP CCERS adopted these techniques New York may be a water city, but its populace at-large and the science behind them for curriculum and student- feels little connection to the waters that are its defining char- teacher field practice that engage schools in a culture of stew- acteristic. Mark Kurlansky captures this irony well in The Big ardship and a more robust understanding and appreciation of Oyster: the Harbor (Billion Oyster Project and the STEM Collaboratory NYC®). It established a 2-year fellowship that equips middle school How is it that a people living in the world’sgreatestport, teachers to train their classes to monitor and maintain an a city with no neighborhood that is far from a waterfront, Boyster restoration station.^ The oyster restoration station is a city whose location was chosen because of the sea, a multi-part cage that houses the naturally stationary oysters, where the great cargo ships and tankers, mighty little plus Bsettlement tiles^ for sessile (immobile) organisms like tugs, yachts, and harbor patrol boats glide by, has lost barnacles and anemones, and a mobile trap for the many spe- all connection with the sea, almost forgotten that the sea cies of fish, shrimps, and crabs found in the Harbor (Billion is there? (pp. 83-86) Oyster Project Restoration). Since oysters grow best attached to other oysters, BOP collects shells from New York City Although coastal areas were key to the development of the restaurants and uses them as Bsubstrate^ for larval oysters to cities and towns they embrace on a map (Lundin and Lindén attach to. Once attached, these juvenile oysters become known 1993, p. 468), social alienation from their community water- as Bspat-on-shell,^ and they are ready to start their new lives in ways has grown as communities have become more populated the restoration stations (Billion Oyster Project Restaurants). J Environ Stud Sci (2019) 9:322–326 325

BOP CCERS: challenge and vision Local implementing partners include Good Shepherd Services, New York Aquarium-WCS, The River Project, and BOP CCERS program was created to bring to city schools the Cell Motion Labs/BioBase. In total, ten core partners are col- extended classroom of New York Harbor, the single largest lectively responsible for development of the CCERS model, educational asset and STEM training ground New York City its five programmatic pillars, and for helping to chart the has to offer. It is the combination of substance and setting that course of the BOP Schools and Citizen Science Program, provides the program its greatest opportunity for success. The the long-term anchor project of the model. liabilities of a coastal urban location associated with modern society have been transformed into the program’s greatest as- sets. But not without challenges: Conclusion

According to the Obama administration’s2016report,STEM New York City schools, the nation’s largest and most 2026, BastrongSTEMeducation^ is Bculturally responsive, urbanized system, have unique institutional and physi- employs problem- and inquiry-based approaches, and engages cal challenges to teaching and learning outside of the students in hands-on activities that offer opportunities to inter- classroom. One of the most fundamental of these is ac- act with STEM professionals^ (U.S. Department of Education cess to the natural world. Most of the City’ssurfaceis 2016,p.1). paved or lying under concrete. Most neighborhoods, This vision statement could have been written for BOP and especially those that are predominantly poor, have CCERS. To date, the program has provided 5600 students little greenspace that is accessible by foot and the ma- with access to New York Harbor at 110 waterfront locations jority of middle schools have no field or adjacent natural in their native environment to participate in oyster restoration, surfaces. Where there are patches of green, teachers data collection and logistical problem solving. One hundred must contend with pollution, permissions from private twenty-seven teachers from throughout New York City have or public entities, and competition for use of limited been trained using the BOP CCERS curriculum, which they facilities. For the average New York City public school have brought into their classrooms and built an institutional teacher enabling students to learn or carry out inquiry foundation for continuing programs in individual city schools. research in the natural world—be it in forests, fields, One hundred ten volunteer citizen scientists assist in the pro- waterways, or manmade parks—is thus a logistical and ject. Students gain ecological literacy and technical profi- physical challenge too difficult to overcome on his/her ciencies through training in statistical and analytical skills own. (Janis et al. 2016,p.6) and a deep dive into the workings of the New York Harbor ecosystem. They learn the history of their community through The BOP CCERS program overcame this challenge by the lens of a keystone species, oyster, that once helped defined creating a common sense of mission among students and the culture and economy of New York City. They learn con- teachers, professional scientists and citizen scientist volun- cepts such as the Public Trust Doctrine, a legal precept that teers, schools, universities, businesses, and community orga- connects them to centuries of history and to their personal nizations, all working together to conduct oyster restoration– ownership of their local ecosystem. Ideally, they take with based scientific research in New York Harbor. Its work is them a lifelong appreciation for the environmental legacy that premised on a fundamental principle that schools and commu- is, and should be, theirs. nities can and should play direct, active, and authentic roles in With an eye toward assisting in the replication of its ecological restoration and stewardship, especially where local STEM approach in other coastal communities, BOP habitats and species have been severely degraded by human CCERS has created a central online location for access development. Its theory of change is that school is made more to the data and information the program has generated. meaningful and student learning enhanced when curricula are The human formula it has developed, is of equal impor- aligned to a local restoration ecology project that requires tance, and eminently replicable. The response of the re- students to conduct authentic problem solving, data collection, gion’s science and professional community has been key experimentation, and research. to its success as has the burgeoning citizen science CCERS is led by principal investigator Dr. Lauren Birney, movement. The mission to restore oysters in New York co-author of this article, and senior personnel from Pace Harbor has had a galvanizing effect, creating alliances University School of Education, New York Harbor and partnerships that perhaps would not otherwise exist, Foundation, New York City Department of Education’s an experience that has been duplicated in other restora- Office of STEM, ’s Lamont-Doherty tion programs around the nation, and a ready-made en- Earth Observatory, New York Academy of Sciences, and the vironment for the introduction and growth of STEM University of Maryland’s Center for Environmental Science. education. 326 J Environ Stud Sci (2019) 9:322–326

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