Nyack's three elementary schools are all located within 2 miles of our park system, including Hook Mountain State Park and Nyack Beach State Park. These natural-resource-rich parks are ideal places for students to learn in the real world, using all of their senses. In partnership with the Friends of Rockland Lake and Hook Mountain, we have developed a two-phase pilot program to explore ways that students can master curriculum topics in ways that make a lasting impression and create bonds between people and parks.

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The first phase, launched in June 2018, brought the third grade students at each elementary school into their schoolyards to experience a microcosm of the park. After a visual introduction in their classrooms, students went outside to explore features of the parks represented by four stations: geology, local plants and trees, basic orienteering, and live animals.

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The second phase, launched in October 2018, brought them to the real thing, with a field trip to Hook Mountain State Park and Nyack Beach State Park (which are parts of a continuous park system). There they explored the park by moving among three stations:

• the Palisades Sill plateau, with its unique geological makeup

• the "switchback trail," a perfect place to learn about responsible usage of trails and park resources, local plants and trees, and how to stop and notice our surroundings

• the Hudson River Estuary, where students will identify fish and other river life using seining nets and fish identification keys

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Even as the students learned topics from Nyack school district curriculum, they got an unforgettable introduction to:

- Stewardship of natural places

- Rich history of the park

- Orienteering

- Park resources and services

- And the sheer pleasure of being outside in the wild

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This program represents the beginning of an exciting alliance among OSA, the Nyack school district, and the Friends of Rockland Lake and Hook Mountain, which we hope will expand into field trip programs for every grade.

Students in 3rd use Native American planting strategies to grow corn, beans, and squash. When they return to school in 4th graders, they harvest the garden and eat their crops. Along the way, the children learn about what plants need to survive, how farming strategies are developed, and the culture of local Native American groups. And in addition to the eye-opening experience of growing their own food, students see how experimentation can lead to innovations in farming—and anything else! 

Students make leaf packs and place them in local streams to attract macroinvertebrates (i.e., aquatic insects in their larval state).  After a few weeks, leaf packs are retrieved and students examine the organisms that have moved in. With the unaided eye as well as microscopes, students observe these “stream critters,” and note features that help to identify them. Once they know what insects are present in a stream, they can deduce its water quality, based on previous scientific research that has measured the ability of different insect larvae to survive in different levels of water quality: some tolerate polluted water, others survive only in pristine waterways. In this program, students can conduct real scientific work in the field under the guidance of professional scientists and educators.

Run by Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, this program educates students about the amazing Hudson River estuary right next-door, and teaches them how to collect data for its annual “check-up”. Students conduct actual data collection and analysis, while getting the chance to interact with their local river and its inhabitants.

During this month-long process, children engage in day-to-day care of developing eggs. They check humidity levels, precise temperature, and turn the eggs carefully three times a day to facilitate a successful hatching. The children are at once Mother Hens and scientists. Over the course of 21 days they are part of the development from embryo to living chick, followed by a week with the brooding chicks themselves.

Nyack is located in an area with extraordinary evidence of tectonic activity, including right here at Hook Mountain and Nyack Beach State Park. This program allows students to learn about the amazing geology of their own back yards, as well as some of the geoscientists that study rocks right here in our own community. The Plate Tectonics Jigsaw program, based on the work of Anne Egger of Central Washington University and others, works with real datasets to teach children about plate boundaries and the concept of plate tectonics. Children become ‘experts’ in one of four global datasets - earthquakes, volcanoes, seafloor age, and topography - and then share their expertise with each other to build connections between the different datasets, much as scientists do every day.

Younger students (K and 1st grade) learn what it takes to nurture seeds into food, which they harvest, prepare, and eat! In addition to gaining hands-on experiences with seeds and plants, the Seed-to-Salad gardens give children a new appreciation for the sources of their food.

When the colonists arrived in North America, white pines stretched from Maine to Ohio. As they were felled and drastically reduced in number, white pines became a source of tension between the settlers and the British, who claimed them for the crown. This program looks at a range of local tree species, and the social, economic, nutritional and political roles they played in indigenous and colonial lives, and the uniquely important role of trees in the founding of our country. Developed by Patricia Shanley of People and Plants International, this program involves classroom presentations followed by a game of “White Pine Riot” outside in the school yard. It is linked to the 4th Grade Colonial Day held each year at Upper Nyack Elementary School.

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These programs help children get to know the plants and trees that grow in their school yard. Children play games and learn the ecology and uses of trees and plants they see every day, and the historical use of plants by indigenous groups and settlers. In one tree program, students core a tree, observe tree-rings and see how scientists learn about climate change through time. We look forward to bringing these program back in the 2017 – 2018 school year.

For the 2016-2017 school year the Upper Nyack Elementary School PTA partnered with Keep Rockland Beautiful (KRB) to launch an annual environmental awareness school event featuring fun and educational outdoor games, activities, and art designed to teach students about our impact on the Earth as well as ways to protect the environment. Students in grades K - 5 rotate through KRB’s Earth B.E.A.T Eco-Stations, participate in repurposed art projects, and have the opportunity to learn about environmental sustainability in their classrooms. SOAR is proud to have been a sponsor of the event and will continue to participate in and support environmental initiatives like Earth Fest in the Nyack schools in subsequent school years. 

OSA educators and volunteers have hosted an interactive natural sciences education table which provides children and their parents with the opportunity to engage in a hands-on science activity and/or experiment. OSA will continue to contribute to the Science Fairs at all three elementary schools in the coming years.

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