MyRWA’s education team expands their reach to new schools and communities
By Natalia Bayona, Education Manager, natalia.bayona@mysticriver.org
The education team at MyRWA enjoyed another amazing spring semester across the watershed, reaching new schools and community centers in Wilmington, Reading, Stoneham, Malden, Somerville, Arlington, Cambridge, Medford, Revere, and Winthrop! We facilitated 87 programs and engaged with over 2,000 students in the classroom, during field trips and at district-wide tabling events.
We led large-scale programs in Arlington and Medford with help from teachers, parents, and new partners! Through support from the PTO at Thompson Elementary, we engaged the entire student body–over 500 students–in learning about how nature handles stormwater by designing natural filtration systems with students in their gym. We later visited the Mystic Lakes Dam with the 4th grade class to sample macroinvertebrates in the lakes and survey wildlife. We also partnered with Friends of the Fells to lead the 7th grade class – 85 students – from Andrews Middle School on a hike in the Lawrence Woods near Medford High School to sample for benthic macroinvertebrates and learn about biodiversity and species interactions in the forest. We also led field programs on water quality and climate change at Torbert MacDonald Park and Blessing of the Bay Park with new partner teachers in Somerville.
In early spring, we were also awarded a one-year Ocean Odyssey Marine Debris Award For Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Accessibility from the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation in partnership with NOAA’s Marine Debris Program to launch a new curriculum on stormwater pollution and marine debris with the For Kids Only Afterschool program in Revere, Everett, and Chelsea. Our education team worked with small groups of students in Revere and Winthrop over the course of 10 weeks in the spring to introduce the issue of stormwater pollution and how it contributes to ocean plastics. Students conducted trash surveys on-site to identify possible trash sources near their center and gather plastics to reuse in designing storm drain models. Our team plans to work with larger groups of students at the Revere and Winthrop centers this summer to lead trash surveys at Revere Beach and Mill Creek and visit a local recycling facility. We will later bring this program to students in Everett and Chelsea during the fall and coming spring. MyRWA staff is very excited to have launched our first collaborative educational program on trash pollution in the Mystic and sees this opportunity as a way to further engage students in mitigating runoff in our coastal communities moving forward!
Student from the For Kids Only Afterschool program in Winthrop tests out a model of a natural filtration system. Credit: Natalia Bayona
Students from For Kids Only Afterschool program in Revere work on diagrams of their storm drain models. Credit: Natalia Bayona
Lastly, members of the education team supported our volunteers in developing a new curriculum on infiltration trenches this spring to accompany the expansion of the installation of infiltration trenches in Arlington, Medford, Winchester, and Woburn! We demonstrated how an infiltration trench works using a model in the classroom, with help from local engineers! Students then created educational signage that will be used by MyRWA staff to design stencils for trench sites throughout each community. Our team is excited to work with Arlington High School students this summer to begin stenciling trenches in Arlington! This project has been financed with Federal Funds from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (Mass DEP) under an s. 319 competitive grant.
Students from Missituk Elementary’s after school science club design signage for trench sites after a visit from stormwater engineers in Medford. Credit: Natalia Bayona
We would like to thank the many teachers, parents, community partners, volunteers, and our funders who supported this tremendous effort! Our education team strives to engage with youth throughout our watershed communities through free of cost, place-based programming to help solve the environmental issues that impact them the most. We encourage interested teachers and youth groups to reach out to Education Manager Natalia (Natalia.Bayona@mysticriver.org) and visit our website at mysticriver.org/education to learn more about our program offerings!
Middle school students from the International School of Boston work with MyRWA to remove invasive bittersweet vines at Riverbend Park for their annual Community Service Day. Credit: Daria Clark
Support for this trash pollution curriculum was provided in part by a grant from the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation under Federal Award NA22NOS4290160 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the NOAA Marine Debris Program.
