Fall 2015
Digest LOWER SCHOOL
| MIDDLE SCHOOL
| UPPER SCHOOL
SERVICE LEARNING
Riverbend Makes a Splash “ Even young kids can understand the importance of protecting nature.”
AMANDA MAHNKE
This fall, the Lower School partnered with Riverbend Environmental Education Center to teach our youngest students about water conservation, our campus’s stream and how to care for the environment and its inhabitants. In preparation for Dr. Jane Goodall’s visit, Riverbend educators visited campus on a rainy Thursday morning in September. While the original plan for the day involved students exploring the creek that runs through campus in a hands-on stream study, the threat of thunderstorms kept everyone indoors. Nevertheless, Lower Schoolers enjoyed the chance to learn more about our local ecosystem through several activities led by Riverbend’s team. Students in kindergarten through fourth grade rotated through four interactive units, including a watershed table that showed how pollution spreads through a stream system, a water cycle simulation and an indoor stream study that demonstrated how wildlife can reveal the health of a body of water. Students also met and handled several animals that live in or near streams, including a toad and a tortoise, and learned about their habitats. “Even young kids can understand the importance of protecting nature,” said David Lowe, an environmental educator at Riverbend. “We feel that if you start very young, they will become stewards as they grow older — they will care more about the environment and realize why we want to protect it, keep our water clean, keep it safe for the animals and for our drinking water.” — Amanda Mahnke
FALL 2015
AGNESIRWIN.ORG
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