The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) is offering Virginia teachers credit for hands-on environmental education courses this summer, starting this July with the opportunity to re-experience our region’s very own “Chesapeake gold rush” for the Eastern Oyster. Splitting time between Virginia’s Historic Triangle and the Bay’s Islands, educators and CBF experts will investigate history, local watermen’s culture, and the state of our oyster population.
Imagine the Gold Rush in the “Wild West” during the mid-1800’s, but in place of gold mines, picture watermen on low-decked boats harvesting mucky bivalves from towering reefs. Chesapeake Gold: Investigating the Past, Present, and Future of the Eastern Oyster is part of the Chesapeake Classrooms series, which helps teachers incorporate environmental education into core subject areas, such as science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics.
Sherri Sklute, an environmental science teacher at Tabb High School in Yorktown, attended two Chesapeake Classrooms courses in 2015 and now brings her AP Environmental Science students on trips with CBF annually. “We were not only taught transformative teaching,” she said. “What we were experiencing was transformative.”
This July educators will use “Chesapeake gold” as a lens for educators to examine the historical, cultural and technological changes in the region from the East Coast’s 19th and 20th century “gold rush” to today. This course runs from July 16 to 20. Registration is $50 and is available online at https://www.cbf.org/join-us/education-program/professional-learning/
CBF is offering a separate Chesapeake Classrooms course for Hampton Roads educators from August 13 to 17, that will investigate how society can design and build more sustainably. During this course, educators will learn to connect students with sustainable infrastructure including environmentally smart buildings, such as CBF’s Brock Environmental Center. Together with CBF experts they will also explore the relationships between human activities and the environment. Registration for this course is also $50.
A third course on the fundamentals of local environment-based education is open to all independent school educators in the Bay watershed. This course will take place in Christchurch, Virginia, and at CBF’s Port Isobel Environmental Education Center from July 23 to 27. A Sense of Place: Developing Environmental Literacy through Place-Based Learning allows teachers to spend time on the water while learning how to develop environmental literacy and accountability in their students. Registration for this course is $50.
These CBF summer courses teachers are a valuable professional development opportunity for educators and provide continuing education credits. “The adaptability of the information we received is awesome,” Sklute said. “I now have the tools to differentiate my lessons for student levels and learning styles throughout the year.”
Due to generous support from our members and donors, CBF is able to offer additional scholarships for teachers from the Hampton Roads area to participate in our courses at no cost. For more information, please contact [email protected].
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