On Friday afternoons, Stanwich students can be seen fully engaged and having fun at Greenwich Point and on the waters of Long Island Sound. But these excursions are not just time for “fun in the sun,” they are actually part of the school’s newly launched marine sciences program. Lower School science educator Amy Kerekes and life sciences instructor Jennifer Weyant, along with boat captain and first grade teacher Keith Radcliffe, have developed a marine science curricula throughout the school’s grade levels. While at Greenwich Point, students explore tidal life along the shoreline, seining in the shallows, and learning about the significance of the Long Island Sound Watershed . After exploring on the shore, students board the school’s 25 foot Parker motor vessel and more of the research continues off shore. Seining nets, plankton nets, underwater cameras, otter trawls, secchi disks, water chemistry test kits, etc. are all part of the tools students experience. Learning relationships with Sound Waters and Project Limulus, the Long Island Sound Biodiversity database, Sacred Heart University, Cold Spring Harbor Fish Hatchery and Dolan DNA Learning Center, and MarineLab in Key Largo, Florida give you a window into the exciting sciences happening at Stanwich that serve both this community and the environment.
