River Summer 2005

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River Summer 2005

• Stephanie Pfirman, Tim Kenna, Lisa Son
• John Cronin, Michelle Land

At the heart of interdisciplinarity is
communicationthe conversations, connections, and
combinations that bring new insights to virtually
every kind of scientist and engineer. COSEPUP
(NAS 2004)
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Participation

• 40 Individuals
• 24 Institutions
• FM ratio 1
• 60 Natural Scientists or Engineers
• 40 Social Scientists or Humanities

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Content

• Watershed Development Framework
• Four 3 ½ day modules (Albany to Manhattan)
• One 6 ½ day module (Adirondacks)
• 57 Natural Science or Engineering
• 43 Social Science or Humanities

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Pedagogical StrategiesLong-Term Learning

• River Summer 2005
• Variability during encoding
• Large number of expert teachers all talking about
  one main topic the Hudson River and in
  variable ways
• Reduced feedback
• Generate and present own ideas
• Challenging situations, at times unsolvable
• Unexpected contexts, surprises
• River Summer 2006
• Review information, space reviewed information,
  test information

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Module Schedule

• First evening
• Orientation, safety, survey, local hero
• Next 3 days
• Field program on board and on shore, led by
  whole-day guest and shipboard teachers
• Evening program, evaluation, discussion
• Final, fourth evening
• Evaluation and discussion
• Final morning
• Depart

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Module 1Upper Hudson

• Seeing the Catskills through the Hudson River
  School Elizabeth Hutchinson, Barnard College
• Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Lee
  Paddock, Pace University
• Contaminants, Riverscope Suspended Sediment
  Monitoring Damon Chaky, Lamont/RPI
• Zebra Mussels Sandra Neirzwicki-Bauer, RPI
• Writing the Hudson Susan Fox-Rogers, Bard
• Fisheries Biology Brian Jenson, The College of
  Saint Rose
• The New Political Economy of the Hudson River
  Valley Ted Eismeier, Hamilton College
• Estuarine Circulation and CTD Sampling Tim
  Kenna, LDEO

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Module 2 Mid-Hudson

• Geology of the Hudson River Valley Steve
  Schimmrich, SUNY-Ulster
• Writing the Hudson Susan Fox-Rogers, Bard
• Brownfield Case Study Zywia Wojnar, Bard Stuart
  Belli and Pinar Batur, Vassar College
• Origins of Environmental Law Michelle Land, Pace
  University
• Human Settlements as Ecosystems Alan Berkowitz,
  IES
• Littoral Zone Ecology Stuart Findlay, IES
• CTD Sampling Tim Kenna, LDEO

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Module 3 Lower Hudson

• Sediment Coring, XRF Analysis and CTD Sampling
  Tim Kenna, LDEO
• The Political Economy of the Yonkers Waterfront
  Marilyn Power, Sarah Lawrence College
• Piermont Marsh-Wetland Brackish Hudson Ecology
  and Paleoecology Dorothy Peteet, LDEO
• Dennings Point Historic and Pre-historic Site
  Visit Lucy Johnson, Vassar College
• New York City Water Supply Rich Carbonaro and
  Kevin Farley, Manhattan College

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Module 4 New York City/ New York Harbor

• Acoustic Surveys and Sediment Coring in New York
  Harbor Robin Bell, Frank Nitsche, Bill Ryan, Tim
  Kenna, LDEO
• Clean Water Act Jeffrey Miller, Pace University
• Panoramas and See Fever Visualizing the Hudson
  Roger Panetta, Fordham University, Elizabeth
  Hutchinson, Barnard College
• Water Quality and the Hudson Kevin Farley,
  Manhattan College
• Wastewater Treatment Alan Moloff
• Maritime History of the Hudson River Bob
  McCaughey
• Coring Tim Kenna, LDEO

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Module 5 Adirondacks

• Adirondack Geography and Ecosystems/ Mapping/
  Tree Identification Bruce Selleck, Colgate
  University
• 2-day wilderness camping experience, including
  GPS and Orienteering Exercise Colgate Outdoor
  Education Staff
• Tour of the Tahawas and McIntyre Mining Areas
  Bruce Selleck
• Land Ownership and Property Rights Ann Davis,
  Marist College
• Blue Mountain Lake Adirondack Museum visit Arts,
  Culture, and Nature in the Adirondacks
• Lake water sampling and Analysis, Clean Air Act
  and Watershed Acidification Chuck Boylan and
  Sandra Neirzwicki-Bauer, RPI
• Economy and Ecology in the Adirondacks

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What Did We Accomplish?

• Significant faculty interest
• Handled complex logistics
• Explored numerous topics using hands-on
  pedagogical strategies
• Hudson River provides rich subject matter that is
  ideal for developing a hands-on interdisciplinary
  program

• Created links among faculty from different
  institutions
• Galvanized the Consortium
• Generated public interest
• May have discovered a unique faculty
  development/teacher training program

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What were some of the best aspects of learning
on River Summer?

• Getting a big picture of the Hudson
• Variety of teaching styles
• Investigative approach
• Large amounts of hands-on activities
• Fieldwork
• Teamwork

• Being on a research ship
• Being outdoors
• Team teaching
• Meeting interdisciplinary faculty
• Meeting and getting to know other faculty

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What did you learn about your learning/teaching
strategies?

• Learning by doing
• Learning better when I am doing rather than
  hearing
• Reinforced learning by doing works for me
• To incorporate less lecture and have more
  hands-on experiences
• I liked having the info (lecture) with the
  hands-on activity as much as possible
• I learned not to be afraid of new tasks
• Alternative approaches
• Writing really helped me crystallize my thoughts
• Data fascinate me there are no data in my
  field
• Challenges for students are motivators
  (competitions)
• I need quiet time to process information
• At first, I had just planned to do a lecture
• After the first day, I changed my plans to start
  with a question, asking the students to develop a
  strategy for_____, and posed the question
  throughout. I think that the reverse strategy
  worked well

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What are some of the River Summer strategies
that you would like to incorporate into your
classroom teaching practices and why?

• Fieldwork
• Fieldwork with students where they do a project
  individually that ties to a group project
• Bringing students to field sites with well
  thought out activities
• Problem solving in real settings
• Pedagogical strategies
• Local hero idea -- a great way to engage students
• Multiple discipline classes
• More collaborative work
• Ungraded quizzes
• Ive never done that and it makes sense to help
  students remember and also to help them see what
  might be asked on exams
• More writing assignments
• Incorporating more data into writing
• Assignments that require students to synthesize
  information in new ways

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Hudson River School of Painting
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Filtering, Seining, Grab Samples, Otter Trawls
Disciplines have discovered common interests,
such as how to relate wholes to parts, macro
processes to micro behavior, and global to
local. COSEPUP (NAS 2004)
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New Objectives for River Summer 2006

• Participants
• Teachers/Professors levels 4-16
• Take time for preparation
• Content
• Major themes
• Continuity among modules
• From multi- to interdisciplinary
• Pedagogy
• Co-teaching
• Work product
• Repeat approaches writing, drawing, sampling

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River Summer as a Unique Opportunity

• Foster an inter-institutional and
  interdisciplinary cadre with knowledge of the
  Hudson and each other
• Leveraging and sustained impact of teaching the
  professors and the teachers