Educational Curriculum for the Niantic
Bay Overlook
Utilizing the Niantic Bay Overlook/Boardwalk for
education augmentation can be done in many ways to obtain a
variety of curriculum goals. The fifth grade students from
Southwest Elementary School, in nearby Waterford, did just
that as a day long field trip to end a year long curriculum
unit on water and the Earth and region’s oceans. Funding for
our trip was provided by a Waterford Education Grant,
however the cost is minimal and was mostly for
transportation of students to the site.
Under the direction of Classroom Teacher Kathy Steward and
Language pathologist Amanda Zawacki, the 70 students were
divided up into three groups. These groups rotated through
the following three activities spending about 45 minutes per
activity. One group was the water group. This group using
waders and a seine net, and the help of Tom Savoy from the
Old Lyme DEP Office, would draw a collection from the ocean
and classify any animals or plant specimens collected.
Securing a collection license would allow some items to be
brought back to a salt water holding tank in the classroom.
The second group was the information group. It was their
task to walk along the boardwalk in smaller groups of 2-3
students and gather information from reading the
DEP
educational signs posted along the walkway. Each student had
a packet of questions that could be answered through the
information provided on the signs. Questions were developed
to relate to classroom curriculum and the town of Waterford
were the students were from. The third group had more
creative and artistic objectives. The structures group
required the students to create sand sculptures of their own
design.
A relaxing lunch and trash detail ended our trip to the
Niantic Boardwalk. Enjoyed by all and easily accessible to
the mobility impaired students we had in the group.
Additional group activities could include: Plant group.
Sketching and identifying beach plants and seaweed. Weather
group. Monitoring and recording tide and weather activities
throughout the day. Recording group. Using cameras and
recording data. This group would be responsible for taking
notes on all the activities of the day. Please direct any
questions on this specific activity to Amanda Zawacki via email. |
 Download
Worksheet Packet |
|
|
