Now in its twentieth year, Teachers on the Bay, a summer graduate- level course run in partnership with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Virginia Commonwealth university, brings elementary and secondary teachers here to learn how to take the science and magic of this water to their own students. Over 300 student/teachers have now passed through the course and spread their knowledge far and wide throughout Virginia and Maryland.
Originally funded by a grant to St. Margarets from the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, today major scholarship support is provided by the Northern Neck Audubon Society, with the Garden Club of the Northern Neck and the Middle Peninsula Garden Club also supporting a teacher each year.
Every summer, the Teachers on the Bay Institute for Chesapeake Bay Studies, hosted at St. Margaret's School in Tappahannock, presents the graduate marine ecology course for K through 12 teachers. The course features extensive field studies and hands-on learning. The curriculum is designed to allow teachers to adapt materials to their own classrooms and pass on the knowledge and heritage of the Chesapeake Bay eco-system to their students.
"Hands on learning best describes the experience I had during my summer session of Teachers on the Bay. Our class designed a t-shirt to commemorate the time together, it was titled "Teachers IN the Bay" which says it all!
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I found the lectures to be engaging and informative and the opportunity to travel down the Rappahannock to the mouth of the Bay, a valuable exposure to the world around me. said Susan Stephenson, a 1993 Teachers on the Bay participant.
The Rappahannock River provides multiple opportunities for the Teachers on the Bay to research and learn about the Chesapeake Bay. Starting in the wetlands of the upper river, navigating by Horsehead Point and Fones Cliffs where more than one hundred bald eagles are typically observed, trawling for fish and performing water quality tests, finally the class moves on to fragile Fox and Tangier Islands, where teachers are able to compare these two different, remote parts of the Chesapeake ecosystem.
Headed by Bill Portlock, Senior Educator for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and assisted by Captain Jimmy Sollner, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation BayWatcher takes the participating students into the tidal creeks, marshes and out into bay studying this fragile eco-system and its influence on us. "It is gratifying to look back to see how this course has helped hundreds of teachers and thousands of students learn about their own, local environment. But more importantly, it has also influenced many to become leaders in the community, helping improve their schools and the environmental health of the Rappahannock & the Chesapeake Bay” says Bill Portlock.
More information:
Teachers on the Bay
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