“TEACHERS ON THE BAY”
Marine Ecology Class for Teachers

Teachers participating in this popular, 5-day field-oriented residential course will learn first-hand about the ecology of Virginia, the Rappahannock River, and the Chesapeake Bay. Focusing on the bay’s tributaries and watershed, the course is designed enable participants to teach their students using local examples with their core curricula. Ultimately, participants also gain a greater understanding of the current environmental issues confronting the Bay.

Class members will examine salt-, brackish-, and fresh-water marshes, beaches, and islands, conduct a Bald Eagle survey in an Eagle concentration zone on the Rappahannock, perform biological and water quality surveys (including Dead Zone profiling) on-board a research vessel. A unique feature of this course is that participants spend every day on water studying, comparing, and contrasting the natural history and ecology of a remote tidal section of the Rappahannock River with an equally remote island archipelago in the Chesapeake Bay/Tangier Sound later in the week.

Dates: July 7-11, 2008 - annually in July, 2009 TBA.

Credit: 3 graduate credits in science (Life Science LFSC 591C from Virginia Commonwealth University)

Cost: $600 includes tuition, room and board (St. Margaret’s School -2 days- and Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Fox Island Study Center -3 days), and all transportation and instructional costs. SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE for Northern Neck teachers

Location: St. Margaret’s School July 7-9, Fox Island Education Study Center July 9-11, 2008

Daily on-water investigations using research vessels, canoes, small craft.

Please contact for more information:
Bill Portlock, Instructor
Senior Educator for the Bay
Chesapeake Bay Foundation
23195 Mt. Cloud Road
Bowling Green, VA 22427

bportlock@cbf.org
Phone 804-512-4536 (cell) or 804-633-7249 (H)

Syllabus/Agenda

Day 1 Registration: 9:00 a.m.
Introduction: Overview of course. Watershed, biotic and abiotic components. Organizing question.
Fieldwork: aboard vessel “Baywatcher” from Tappahannock to Saunders Wharf at Wheatland. This journey is through the most pristine large river in the Chesapeake Bay system and traverses a Bald Eagle concentration area. We will perform water quality analyses, trawl (biological collections), examine dredge and shoreline geologic deposits, and conduct a bald eagle survey. Nutrient effects.
Evening Lab (7:00p.m.)

Day 2 Lecture: “The State of the Bay”. Marsh ecology; life histories of selected species; composition and properties of sea and estuarine waters; current environmental problems confronting the Chesapeake Bay (nutrients).
Fieldwork: aboard M/V Baywatcher from Saunders Wharf to Rappahannock Academy. Perform and compare water quality measurements, trawl (biological collections), Participate in topographic map and nautical chart exercises and basic safe boat handling practices. Continue Bald Eagle survey. Nutrients.
Evening Lecture.

Day 3 Lecture: Estuarine circulation; nutrient cycles; marine and estuarine food chains; plankton.
Fieldwork Aboard M/V Jenny S to Fox island Island Education Study Center. Open water survey. Arrive on Island by 1 p.m. Introduction and orientation to Fox Island. Transect submerged aquatic vegetation; island exploration.

Day 4 Lecture: Introduction to environments of deposition & geologic history of the Chesapeake Bay. Biological productivity.
Field work: Aboard Jenny S. working on oyster reef & benthic communities. Wetlands investigation (salt marsh and beach communities).

Days 5 Fox Island
Salt marsh quadrat and transect survey. Sunrise on workboat (optional); complete exam, evaluations. Clean facility, pack and leave Fox Island 1p.m. for Smith Point, Virginia by way of Tangier Island. Arrive at St. Margaret’s School by 5:00p.m.