Estuary & Park Ecology

About this Program

The Estuary & Park Ecology program will provide opportunities for urban students to explore natural spaces in and around Stuyvesant Cove Park and the East River tidal strait. It will encourage students to experience the park and estuary as fascinating and complex living ecosystems. Students will learn about the science and history of Stuyvesant Cove Park and the East River while participating in water quality testing and analysis, native plant studies, wildlife observations, oyster gardening, and composting, among other activities. The program will help students to better understand and connect with our local ecosystems and to encourage their stewardship of our natural resources.

Estuary & Park Ecology Program Setup

This grant-funded program is currently available at no cost.

Schedule a Program: To schedule a program please fill out this Pre-Visit Form and email back to education@solar1.org.

Time and Setup: Solar One offers either 1 or 2 sessions that last approximately 1.5 hours long on-site at Solar One and in your school. Solar One offers opportunities for schools to use our East River location to conduct water quality testing during these sessions and as separate field trips. There is a maximum of 25-30 students for this program at one time.

Solar One provides a water quality program that explores the East River Estuary through Field Study and Water Quality Labs.

Session Outline
Session One: Introduction to the East River Estuary & Water Quality: This session typically takes place at your school, and includes a power point presentation where students will learn about water quality and NYC history.
Session Two: Water Quality Lab: This session typically takes place at the Solar One Education Center, right next to the East River. During this session students will look at the physical and chemical properties of water in the East River. They will also have an opportunity to learn about oyster restoration and Solar One’s Stuyvesant Cove Park, which is a native plant park.

For 2 years now Solar One’s Education Program has worked with oyster gardening program partners NY/NJ Baykeeper, The River Project and The New York Harbor School to connect schools and teachers with a rack of oysters that they can observe and help monitor as a key part of the NYC Oyster Gardening Program. Solar One hosts oyster gardens on the East River – if interested in obtaining the permit for a rack of oysters contact the Baykeeper here.

Resources
SCORE (oyster specific)
MD Sea Grant (oysters K-12)
LA Sea Grant (oyster biology)
Aquaculture
BRIDGE (gen. marine)

Teacher Materials

Click on the links below to download great worksheets, readers and activities perfect for you classroom. The files are PDF files, if you do not have Adobe Reader you can download one here.

General Water Quality Resources:

Water Quality Reader (For Grades 4-8) PDF
Program Outline (PDF)
Baykeeper Oyster Presentation

Note: These materials are meant for educational purposes solely. All text, unless otherwise noted, is copyright Solar One 2011.

Water Quality Monitoring Station

Thanks to a generous grant from the Department of Environmental Conservation Solar One is home to a Water Quality Sonde Monitoring Systems. Apart of a network of water quality stations around the city, the station provides a live data feed of important water quality parameters from the East River Tidal Strait. This data can be accessed via our website here.

Check out the real-time data from our East River Water Quality Monitoring Station here.

Resources

River Project
The NY/NJ Baykeeper
The Gowanus Oyster Garden Stewards
Inland fishes of New York
East River NYC
Green Shores

Pictures