PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Oyster Restoration Faculty Field Trip to
Maryland Yacht Club
9/25/14
Led by Environmental Stewardship Parent Advisor, Carl Treff, and his two St. Martin’s sons, Alexander (Grade 5) and Aidan (Grade 2). Attended by almost 100% of faculty.
On a rainy, overcast day, as a Nor’easter was blowing out, the preschool-through-grade-8 faculty met Carl Treff and his sons at the Maryland Yacht Club (MYC) in Pasadena, where cages of spat-on-shell had been placed as part of St. Martin’s participation in the Marylanders Grow Oysters program. Teachers were meant to experience what they would be guiding their students to do over the coming months: shaking the cages to remove silt that might have settled on the growing oysters and to collect data on water temperature, salinity, depth, and clarity.
This is part of the Marylanders Grow Oysters program, administered by the Department of Natural Resources and part of the Oyster Recovery Partnership.
Maryland Grows Oysters in now in 30 different rivers. Mr. Treff oversees the program in the Magothy River, which has grown to 150 families and more than 600 cages, of which St. Martin’s is a part. The purpose is to enable families and students to practice stewardship and persistence in improving the health of the bay.
Teachers learned that “spat” is a baby oyster that started as larvae and “glued” itself to shells. Old oyster shells are provided by the Horn Point Laboratory and by a program that collects oyster shells from restaurants and packing houses. Cages are made by inmates of the state prison system.
The oysters we are growing will be collected, travel by boat to Fort Carroll, and be placed on an oyster reef sanctuary. This will be an event experienced by the 3/4th grades and reported to all K-8 grades, who have had a hand over the course of the year in growing the oysters.
Here are the data we collected:
Temperature of the water: 20 degrees Celsius.
Salinity: 10 ppt (parts per thousand)
Depth: 1.4 meters
Clarity: 1.3 meters
Teachers handled the instruments (Secchi disk, thermometer, refractometer) used to collect these date. Alexander and Aidan showed the teachers how to take the measurements. Each month a designated grade (K-8) will go to the MYC to collect data and check on the oysters.
Oyster Restoration Faculty Field Trip to
Maryland Yacht Club
9/25/14
Led by Environmental Stewardship Parent Advisor, Carl Treff, and his two St. Martin’s sons, Alexander (Grade 5) and Aidan (Grade 2). Attended by almost 100% of faculty.
On a rainy, overcast day, as a Nor’easter was blowing out, the preschool-through-grade-8 faculty met Carl Treff and his sons at the Maryland Yacht Club (MYC) in Pasadena, where cages of spat-on-shell had been placed as part of St. Martin’s participation in the Marylanders Grow Oysters program. Teachers were meant to experience what they would be guiding their students to do over the coming months: shaking the cages to remove silt that might have settled on the growing oysters and to collect data on water temperature, salinity, depth, and clarity.
This is part of the Marylanders Grow Oysters program, administered by the Department of Natural Resources and part of the Oyster Recovery Partnership.
Maryland Grows Oysters in now in 30 different rivers. Mr. Treff oversees the program in the Magothy River, which has grown to 150 families and more than 600 cages, of which St. Martin’s is a part. The purpose is to enable families and students to practice stewardship and persistence in improving the health of the bay.
Teachers learned that “spat” is a baby oyster that started as larvae and “glued” itself to shells. Old oyster shells are provided by the Horn Point Laboratory and by a program that collects oyster shells from restaurants and packing houses. Cages are made by inmates of the state prison system.
The oysters we are growing will be collected, travel by boat to Fort Carroll, and be placed on an oyster reef sanctuary. This will be an event experienced by the 3/4th grades and reported to all K-8 grades, who have had a hand over the course of the year in growing the oysters.
Here are the data we collected:
Temperature of the water: 20 degrees Celsius.
Salinity: 10 ppt (parts per thousand)
Depth: 1.4 meters
Clarity: 1.3 meters
Teachers handled the instruments (Secchi disk, thermometer, refractometer) used to collect these date. Alexander and Aidan showed the teachers how to take the measurements. Each month a designated grade (K-8) will go to the MYC to collect data and check on the oysters.