News Stories

Norfolk Christian Lower School visit Norfolk District, Oyster Gardening Event

Published April 9, 2018
NCLS

Oyster Gardening - NCLS

NORFOLK, Va. – A team of volunteers welcomed students from Norfolk Christian Lower School (NCLS) for an oyster gardening event.

The oyster gardening project, which includes lessons on restoring oysters to local waterways, identifying aquatic wildlife, and measuring the salinity of water, has been active for more than six years and continues to host several local schools on a monthly basis.

For more than four years, students from NCLS visit Fort Norfolk regularly for hands-on experience in science, technology, engineering, and math subjects. The school has developed a system of learning, which includes objectives such as handling scientific instruments, performing averages for math, and learning how to take a random samples.

“These oyster events make learning more fun and give the students a chance to apply classroom learning to a project in the community,” said Advanced Academics Teacher Laura Edwards. “These events teach our children how to solve problems in the community and to take action.”

During the events, students form four teams, with each child rotating between four tasks, including serving as group leader. The four teams are water quality, data collection, specimen, and cleaning.

“We want to apply as many classroom topics and STEM objectives as possible, which includes social studies and leadership,” Edwards said. “When the students interact with the team here at the District, they are learning how to communicate with other people, how to express ideas, and how to be a leader in the community.”

Employees of the District, with varying engineering and science backgrounds, volunteer as guides and assistants to the students.   

“I have a marine biology background and I want to help the students understand how important oyster gardening is to our environment,” said Peter Kube, chief of the District’s Eastern Virginia regulatory section. “I’m just trying to educate people about our aquatic resources.”

Shannon Reinheimer, an environmental scientist with the District, volunteers as event coordinator and manager. Her background and understanding of water quality, and the effect it has on aquatic environments, helps her prepare for the time with the students.

“I enjoy watching how much the children learn throughout the program,” Reinheimer said. “They come in with some knowledge and as the year progresses, they become experts.”

The students gain insight into the work performed by the District and take environmental knowledge into the classroom.

“The children see this as their capstone project for the fifth-grade and they begin to see the volunteers as their mentors,” Edwards said. “The children love the Corps of Engineers because they get to perform grown-up tasks. This partnership with the Corps of Engineers definitely makes it easier as an educator.”