All 4th graders will get closer to the Bay starting this fall

Posted 6/30/15

Fearing the loss of the Save the Bay program at Robertson Elementary School where she served as principal, and believing students throughout Warwick could benefit from learning more about the bay, …

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All 4th graders will get closer to the Bay starting this fall

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Fearing the loss of the Save the Bay program at Robertson Elementary School where she served as principal, and believing students throughout Warwick could benefit from learning more about the bay, Director of Elementary Education Lynn Dambruch aims to bring the program to all Warwick fourth graders starting this fall.

Five years ago Robertson School received a grant from the Defenders of Greenwich Bay to have the entirety of the school’s student population participate in Save the Bay’s educational program.

Thanks to the $100,000 grant, over the past five years more than 480 Robertson students have had classes in various topics including food webs and habitats of sea creatures and environmental protection and then would take a field trip to Narragansett Bay with Save the Bay. The same program was initiated at Warwick Neck School thanks to a grant from George Shuster.

Jack Early, president of the Defenders of Greenwich Bay, said the organization knew they wanted to make an educational impact and having done cleanups in and around the Robertson neighborhoods, the school seemed to be the perfect choice.

Instead of using funds throughout the district, Early said the Defenders wanted to see the impact of having children experience regular interactions with the bay. They wanted to foster a “greater and deeper connection between the students and the bay,” a goal Early thinks was achieved.

“The bay is integral to us as Rhode Islanders,” Early said. “These students haven’t only gained awareness thanks to this program, but they have also garnered stewardship.”

As Bridget Kubis Prescott, Director of Education for Save the Bay, explained, stewardship is one of the main goals of Save the Bay’s educational programs. Annually, Save the Bay works with more than 15,000 students.

“It’s vital to get kids to engage in the care of the bay and take ownership,” Prescott said. “The best way to do that is through education.”

Five years ago, Prescott was integral in creating the program for Robertson, which consists of two to three in-class programs and a field trip, all of which is in alignment to each grade’s science curriculum.

Dambruch said the Save the Bay program “extended across the curriculum” and the school day because students would want to write about their experiences or read more on the animals they learned about in the program.

“It was a big part of our school the students and teachers all really embraced it,” she said.

Both Prescott and Dambruch agreed that teachers, parents and students alike loved the Save the Bay program and were sad to know that it would be coming to an end.

“This provides some real life experience with science and truly broadens students’ knowledge,” Dambruch said. “I have always really valued the program, and I hated to see it possibly leave Warwick. That’s why I wanted to see it go district-wide.”

Working closely with Save the Bay and other school administrators, Dambruch budgeted the funding to bring the educational program to all fourth grades in the district in the coming academic year.

Although the budget still needs to be approved, currently $22,000 is set aside to fund the Save the Bay program, and Save the Bay agreed to match that to have the program continue.

Dambruch said that if students are taught to respect and appreciate the bay they can be “informative adults and actively engage in protecting the bay,” ensuring it for generations to come.

“When students understand the bay, they identify with it and want to protect it,” Prescott said. “The younger you introduce students to protecting the environment it just becomes part of who they are; it is second nature.”

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