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Fuel For Thought
Most streams, many wetlands could lose protection
Study gives B-WET program high marks even if it's not on the test
Hundreds of students in the Chesapeake Bay watershed are tackling the question that has vexed scientists, policy-makers and concerned citizens for decades: how to make its waters run cleaner.
The challenge came from the mountains of West Virginia, where the Cacapon Institute has cooked up a web-based “eForum” that has students and teachers buzzing.
The forum combines studies of Bay science with the messy, but inescapable realm of human negotiations. In the classroom, students spend several weeks studying the Bay’s problems. Their final task is to propose solutions—but not before getting an earful from their classroom peers and through an online debate with students at different locations in the Bay watershed.
“Our goal is to create an experience that is extended and intense, full of both information and process,” said executive director W. Neil Gillies.
The “Stream Cleaner” environmental forum focuses on the Bay watershed’s nonpoint source pollution, which washes into waterways from such dispersed areas as lawns, parking lots and farm fields. The forum debuted in 2006 and continues this spring with at least a fivefold increase in participants.
It is designed to promote problem-solving in a regional context. Each class divides into groups, through which they role-play the perspectives of farmers, local governments, fishermen, environmentalists and other stakeholder groups. They debate in the classroom and post position statements online. Students at other participating schools, also representing stakeholder groups, review the position statements. They exchange responses online, challenging each other’s perspectives and the logic they use to support them.
The debate period goes on for three to four weeks.
“Some teachers said they’d never done anything like this in terms of critical thinking,” Gillies said. “The students really have to process it. Not just for a day, but for weeks.”
In the end, each class produces a consensus report that outlines their plan to restore the Bay in ways they think are both scientifically sound and acceptable to most stakeholders. Each class produces its own set of solutions based on the concerns and ideas that were shared in class and online.
“I was shocked and amazed to observe the strong stances that many of students took on their points of view,” said Sharon Harman, whose students in Petersburg, WV, participated in previous forums. “The most rewarding experience for me was the students’ response at the end of the consensus work. All of the students leaned back in their chairs and collapsed with a sense of satisfied accomplishment.”
The process mimics the evolution of the Bay restoration effort—an effort which began by studying problems and solutions, but now pivots on the human and economic concerns that can lead to success or stagnation.
Students at Hampshire High School in Romney, WV, who participated in the 2006 forum, outlined the concessions that their classroom groups were willing to make. The commercial fishermen would fish in restricted areas, for example, and the city dwellers would pay more to treat their sewage. In the end, the students wrote, “In order to do anything, all the groups are going to have to work together if they want to solve the problem.”
Participants in the current session are sharing perspectives from different corners of the Bay watershed. Recruitment efforts, backed by organizations like the the Chesapeake Bay Program, Chesapeake Bay Trust, Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Maryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor, have paid off. The preliminary roll included 35 classes from 19 schools: three from West Virginia, four from Virginia, 10 from Maryland, and one each from Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia. A Massachusetts high school is even on board.
“We hope to have someone from a fisherman’s family debating with a kid from a farm family in West Virginia, or someone from Amish country talking to a student in an urban area,” Gillies said. “It’s a chance to open their imaginations to a lot of different perspectives and hopefully develop some respect for them.”
Along with the annual Stream Cleaner session, the Cacapon Institute offers a second eForum called “Oh Deer!,” which focuses on the overpopulation of deer and the resulting damage to crops and forests.
Most students participate through a science class, but the eForum is also an effective teaching tool for social studies, vocational agriculture and language arts, where the processes of citizenship and democratic persuasion are often part of the curriculum.
At Hampshire High School, teacher William Moore led four environmental science classes through both the “Oh Deer!” and “Stream Cleaner” eForums. He believes that real-world issues and peer review create a powerful combination.
“These are real issues, very tangible, and not just in a textbook,” Moore said. “It leads to some pretty strong sentiments, even between our classes.”
Moore uses what he calls a “fishbowl” technique to help students build consensus. Each group selects a spokesperson to explain their stakeholder group’s perspective to others and decide whether and how to compromise. The spokespersons interact in the center of the room, while the other students watch from the perimeter.
“The outrageous ones, or the loudest ones, weren’t necessarily selected as the spokesperson. They tended to pick the more moderate ones with more reasonable explanations,” Moore said. “A lot of the students realize for the first time that it’s not just about yelling, and that there is room for citizen input.”
Expanding peer review through the Internet intensifies the debate.
“These are high school kids, focused on others their own age, which makes this so much fun,” Gillies said. “As soon as they start engaging each other, the energy level changes pretty noticeably.”
For security reasons, the students don’t communicate directly online. Instead, they send position statements and responses, called “Thoughtful Questions,” to Cacapon’s education director Frank Rodgers. If they contain nothing inappropriate, he posts the messages in full.
“They take it very seriously,” Rodgers said. “They’ve been harsh on occasion when things don’t make sense, but it’s a positive peer review community.”
Students sometimes get an electronic nudge from a guest voice—professionals dubbed “Native Guides,” who present their own points of view or challenge the students to explore a different angle.
The website also provides research links and teaching materials.
“They are right on target with every issue and make sure you can get to all of the links,” said Laura O’Leary, whose students at North Harford High School in Pykesville, MD, are participating in the current forum. “There’s always something interesting and fun that will help me not only with these forums, but with my other teaching, too.”
Students are encouraged to make connections away from the computer, too. Cacapon Institute helps to match interested classes with local watershed associations, nature centers or resource professionals who can help tie the issues to the local setting or discuss related careers.
They can also mentor real-world stewardship projects or alert students to volunteer opportunities.
The 2005 “Oh Deer!” session inspired Moore’s students to create a deer “exclosure” on part of the school’s forested campus. The West Virginia Potomac Valley Conservation District provided a small grant for the project, and the U.S. Forest Service added $3,800 to establish an even larger area. The Forest Service has also worked with the school on a cooperative research project.
This year, Cacapon Institute has taken extra steps to support hands-on action.
“Participating schools can apply for money that will help them conduct their own watershed stewardship project, like planting a buffer, dealing with parking lot runoff or controlling an erosion problem,” Rodgers said. Project results will be posted on the web site for others to see.
Funds for the project grants, which will be distributed by the Cacapon Institute, come from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, MARPAT Foundation, Spring Creek Foundation and Cacapon Institute’s members.
“We think it will take a generation to build a societal consensus about how our environment should be treated,” Gillies said. “If we don’t work now on creative ways to engage the next generation, it will take another generation yet.”
To access the eForum web site and view student dialogue, visit www.cacaponinstitute.org.
Participate in eForum
High schools within and beyond the Chesapeake Bay watershed are invited to participate in future eForums, including the “Oh Deer!” session this fall. The forums are free, but advance registration is required.
Classes must have access to the Internet on multiple computers. For information, visit the Cacapon Institute web site (above), call 304-856-1385 or email ci@cacaponinstitute.org.
