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Schools

The Classroom Comes to Reston's Lake Fairfax

Area middle school students participate in watershed field studies.

During the next few weeks, is being turned into a large outdoor classroom for thousands of Fairfax County middle school students.

On a recent weekday, student, wearing “Wave of the Future” t-shirts and armed with clipboards worked on their projects at each learning station. 

Experts from George Mason University are teaching the students about water quality, erosion, flood plains, geographic information systems, animal and vegetation studies and much more.  Using the same tools and technology the scientists use, the students carry out scientific water testing and later upload their findings into the National Geographic Field Scope database project.

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“Really, this is what science is all about:  collaboration, data collection, using technology and tools in the field, just like real scientists,” said Linda Peterson, Fairfax County Public Schools Middle School Science Specialist. 

The Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience is part of the FCPS science curriculum in all middle schools. Most schools participate in field studies, some close to their school - for example, and  Franklin Middle School has a wetlands nearby for its program. Those schools that do not have an easily accessible area to study, come to Lake Fairfax.

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Students come to the program already understanding key concepts, but are able to participate in hands-on activities, mentored by professionals in the field, to reinforce the book learning.

This year, with a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) grant,  FCPS was able to partner  with George Mason and bring in experts to work with the students. The grant is for three years.

Peterson says they were very excited about how the NOAA grant enhanced the program and are “hopeful for further funding”.

At one of the learning stations, Dr. Laurie Harmon (Professor of Parks, Recreation and Leisure Studies at George Mason University) and Dr. Mark Gleason (Director of Education and Chief Marine Scientist at Great Lakes Naval Memorial and Museum in Muskegon Michigan) welcomed students to the dock at Lake Fairfax .

These students were going to deploy and pilot an ROV – Remote Observation Vehicle.  Each group divided into two teams. Team A took the ROV and its tether to the edge of the dock and awaited instructions from Team B, who was monitoring the images from the onboard camera.  The two teams communicated about positioning and depth and movement, until finally the lake bottom came into view.  The vegetation and occasional fish swimming impressed the students.

“Our goal is to spatially connect kids to the bay, to add another connection," said Harmon. "They see the land, the runoff,  the water surface. With the ROV, they can see for the first time what’s under the surface. They’ll see what it is like in the water, another dimension of the actual habitat.” 

Gleason told the students that he used ROV’s to explore over 30 shipwrecks, oil and gas reconnaissance and to watch the habits of manatee and moose.

Harmon and Gleason are filming much of the activities on the dock, and video from the ROV, so they can develop podcasts for teachers to use in the classrooms to extend the lessons to a larger group. NOAA resources tend to highlight ocean habitats, so the lake footage will be an important contribution.

The program will continue for six weeks at Lake Fairfax, serving nearly 3,000 FCPS students. 

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