PORT TOWNSEND — The entire Blue Heron Middle School fifth-grade class is spending three days this week at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center in a program that teaches them about their environment in a meaningful way, instructors say.
“These classes give the students exposure to what exists in their backyard,” said Jamie Montague, the center’s citizen science coordinator.
“The idea is that you can’t care about something or be a steward of something if you don’t know what it is.”
The three-day field trip program “Whales of the Salish Sea” started Monday and includes three sections: instruction about whale biology, an exploration of plankton and a study of how whales socialize and communicate.
Each section will attend three classes per day, culminating in a “town hall” meeting where the students will discuss and debate points of view concerning the installation of experimental tidal energy turbines in Admiralty Inlet.
Blue Heron teacher Chris Neuman has taught in the district for 22 years, and she previously taught her classes using science-experiment kits that included non-native species, but these proved difficult to keep alive.
The school decided to use the Marine Science Center as a resource starting three years ago because it provided a more natural and less invasive path to learning.
“We used to get these scientific kits which brought in animals, and we were supposed to conduct experiments on them, but they eventually died,” Neuman said.
“We then determined that we have this facility right here that has the ability to keep the animals in their native habitat.
“This is where we come to get our life-science experience, where everything is treated the way it should be.”
Having taught science in both classroom and on-site environments, Neuman favors the latter.
“The quality of learning is higher out here,” she said.
“Being able to spend a whole day on science rather than just one hour in the classroom really opens it up and pulls
everything together.”
Blue Heron has sent its fifth-graders to this course for three years, but this is the first time it is being held under the auspices of the school district’s Maritime Discovery Initiative, which is intended to incorporate maritime-based instruction in all levels of the district’s curriculum.
Sarah Rubenstein, program manager of Port Townsend School District’s maritime curriculum, said that this week’s trip is a preview of how the initiative will work.
“We are now working to bring a greater percentage of maritime instruction into all subjects,” she said.
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Jefferson Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
