Twenty teachers from 10 Jersey City schools stomped through the underbrush as if on a safari. They could have been anywhere from the depths of the Meadowlands to the rice paddies of Vietnam.
But this trek through fox tail, fireweed, and other plants typical of wetlands was in the heart of Jersey City, part of an early lesson teachers hoped to bring back to their students when school starts on Sept. 8.
While they were accompanied by a handful of students who were involved in their own environmental projects, the teachers came to Reservoir No. 3 in Jersey City Heights to work with the Jersey City Reservoir Alliance to develop ideas for lessons they can teach at school.
The reservoir – now used as a nature preserve — was constructed just after the American Civil War in 1870 in order to accommodate the growing urban need for fresh water. Unfortunately, it could not use water from the Hudson and Hackensack rivers because of their salt content, so it used water sent in via a complex array of steam pumps from the Passaic River.
“In some ways, we have students teaching teachers.” — Dale Rosselet
____________
But this practice ceased around 1910 when the city purchased a cleaner source of water in Boonton, which is still the primary source of drinking water for the city. The reservoir largely went unused until early 2000s when the Jersey City Reservoir Alliance began to see it as a viable urban environmental resource.
This is also part of a four-day summer program by Honeywell Institute for Ecosystems Education (HIEE), which combines classroom instruction with diverse outdoor experiences.
“The Honeywell Institute for Ecosystems Education represents an investment in the sustainability of our schools and our communities,” said Mike Bennett, president of Honeywell Hometown Solutions. “In addition, we want to help students prepare for jobs and work that will keep our country competitive and make a real difference in people’s lives. HIEE provides Jersey City students with the opportunity to make an impact in their school and community while developing a passion for sustainability; urban conservation; and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education.”
HIEE has been involved with Jersey City Schools since 2008 and programs have taken teachers from one end of the city to the other, studying numerous aspects of the environment, including last year a visit to Hyatt Hotel on Exchange Place to learn about their rooftop beekeeping program. This included students from Christa McAuliffe Middle School, P.S. 28, working on how to reduce mosquitoes, a significant issue in some portions of the reservoir through the use of self-sustaining technology.
“In some ways, we have students teaching teachers,” said Dale Rosselet, vice president of Education for New Jersey Audubon. “But the idea here is to expose teachers to what is possible so that they can turnkey and bring it back to their students in the classroom.”
This is a partnership between Honeywell and New Jersey Audubon which works in cooperation with Jersey City schools to help Jersey City teachers inspire their students to identify and address local environmental issues, create more sustainable communities, and become scientists, inventors, or engineers.
Early in the day, teachers spread out on the shores of the reservoir including, art teachers who were making sketches of the pump houses, islands, and other features.
The reservoir occupies an area the size of several city blocks between Summit and Central avenues and is contained by a large stone wall. Inside, however, the landscape is complete different, a lost world filled with wildlife and fauna. Large white egrets launch from the water side like ancient dinosaurs, while geese, ducks and many other birds cruise the shore line.
Teachers involved in the program come from a variety of disciplines, including art, and for the few hours or so, many sat beside the water attempting to sketch the details of the remarkable terrain.
More than use a tour of the reservoir
The program didn’t start with this tour of Jersey City’s urban wonderland. In June, more than 80 Jersey City students from seven schools showcased their urban sustainability projects learned during hands-on lessons taught by last year’s HIEE teachers. Projects ranged from window screens to improve a school’s air quality, to the use of a hydroponics system to grow herbs and other crops for use by a school cafeteria.
“While many environmental education programs drive kids out to wetlands and nature preserves far from home, HIEE is different because we want students invested in local communities where they live,” said Rosselet. “Honeywell and Audubon have developed a unique partnership that provides teachers new lessons about urban sustainability, strategies, and curriculum for engaging students, and connections with community resources, so that they can inspire their students to be the next generation of scientists and engineers while improving the conservation of their communities.”
During HIEE, teachers engage in experiments and observations that utilize Jersey City’s environment to learn about sustainable and unsustainable actions. By looking at runoff in an urban parking lot and at a light rail station, teachers develop an understanding of land use and land cover and its relationship to ecosystems and habits within the Passaic/Hackensack watershed. The teachers visited Jersey City’s Lincoln Park to learn about wetlands, birds, plants, and soil by observing factors that affect ecosystem health.
This visit to the reservoir provided teachers with the opportunity to develop an environmental audit of plant diversity and an understanding of community resources to take back to their classrooms.
The teachers, moving along trails that seem straight out of an earlier chapter of New Jersey history, trekked to experimental work stations on the north side, where they learned about how technology can be used to help deal with mosquito issues – a large collector using computer technology, solar power and composting to help trap mosquitoes, something that is very relevant in the era of Zika virus.
T Institute, however, uses New Jersey Student Learning Standards for Science – developed from the National Research Council’s Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards – which all New Jersey grade 6-12 classrooms must implement starting this school year. The standards require hands-on, inquiry-based learning that relies more on exploration and question-based learning approaches rather than memorization of facts. The new standards are expected to prepare New Jersey graduates to enter an economy that is more reliant on STEM careers.
“HIEE enables teachers to implement modern teaching methods within changing and sustaining urban landscapes that empower students to become active participants,” said Manisha Shah, Jersey City Public School’s 6to 12grade science supervisor. “Together teachers and students will explore their surrounding habitats to propose solutions that are environmentally sustainable and work towards continued conservation projects in the future.”
Each HIEE participating teacher is given a $500 mini-grant from Honeywell to implement sustainability projects in their classrooms and to work toward an Eco-Schools USA certification. This National Wildlife Federation certification is given to schools that engage their students, staff, and community members to identify school sustainability issues and to develop improvement plans. At Eco-Schools, students engage in critical thinking and hands-on STEM lessons to develop environmental awareness and stewardship that can be used at home and at school.
The 20 participating teachers represented 10 Jersey City schools: Academy 1 Middle School, Dickinson High School, Ferris High School, Infinity Institute, Innovation High School, Lincoln High School, McNair Academic High School, Franklin L. Williams School M.S. 7, James F. Murray School P.S. 38, and Snyder High School.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com