For over a decade, the Long Island Pine Barrens Society has provided Long Island’s middle school students the opportunity to be scientists, thanks to sponsorship from the National Grid Foundation. Each year, this program allows dozens of students to learn more about Long Island’s water, how to preserve it, and how to think like scientists to solve problems.
It all starts in the classroom. At the start of the year, students spend time learning about Long Island’s water, what threats face it, and what can be done to preserve it. Then, the training wheels are removed, and the students are let loose to think about a problem facing Long Island’s water, and how they’d best solve it. Students are tasked with doing research, writing papers, and preparing poster presentations summing up their work, which are presented to Long Island Pine Barrens Society staff at each school’s “Water Day.” This year, three classes of Patchogue-Medford middle school students – from Oregon, Saxton, and South Ocean Middle Schools – presented their work. Topics ranged from microbeads and other harmful plastics, to nitrate pollutions and the “dead zones” that appear in the Long Island Sound, to problems found in the home, such as the efficacy of water filters.
While last year featured the program’s return to an in-person experience in the wake of the pandemic, this year featured a never-before-implemented addition to the program: a hike! Over three dozen students were given a guided hike through Fish Thicket Preserve – a Town of Brookhaven park which was preserved only thanks to the advocacy of Pat-Med students of yesteryear – where LIPBS board members John Turner and Bob McGrath taught about the local Pine Barrens ecosystem, and the history of the preserve. By the day’s end, the students were more engaged than ever before with the environment, and that alone is the mark of a successful program.
A month after the three Water Days and the hike through Fish Thicket Preserve, all the students traveled to Stony Brook University, where they were treated to a lecture by Dr. Christopher Gobler, the premier expert on Long Island’s water quality. For forty minutes, Dr. Gobler provided students with a college-level presentation, talking in detail about the various contaminants that threaten our water, as well as what solutions are being worked on to improve things. Then, the students once again presented their work to LIPBS staff as well as members of the Center for Clean Water Technology.
Finally, the program wrapped up on June 8th, at Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge. There, students were presented with certificates recognizing their efforts, and the students who worked on the projects deemed the best by the LIPBS were presented with certificates from Deputy County Executive Jennifer Juengst and Alice Painter, Chief of Staff to Assemblyman Joe DeStefano. (Plaques provided by the National Grid Foundation recognizing these winning students’ achievement were delivered subsequently). Students were again given time to present their work to the LIPBS, government representatives, and of course their families. After affording guests the time to talk to the students about their work, board member Bob McGrath led a hike through Wertheim, where he expounded on the effect the Carmans River watershed has on the ecosystem, the quirky nature of the White-breasted Nuthatch, and, of course, ticks (who made sure to attend the hike!).
The Middle School Kids Go To College program is perhaps a prime example of what the Long Island Pine Barrens Society is all about. In fostering a love of Long Island’s natural beauty in our youth, we engender a new generation of preservers who will continue the good fight in conserving what makes our Island so special to begin with. In pushing students to their academic limits, we prepare them to rise to the challenge of understanding and protecting the Pine Barrens. And in honoring their achievements, we celebrate the fact that progress is made not by the movement of governments or corporations, but instead by the hard work of individuals.
This year, the Middle School Kids Go To College program was better than ever, and here’s to many more years of reaching ever greater heights!
By Travis Cutter, Long Island Pine Barrens Society
