Seventh Graders Explore Long Island

(May 2008) Riverhead is bordered by the Peconic River and the Great Peconic Bay on the south and the Long Island Sound on the north and it is only a short bus ride to the Ocean. Riverhead's unique location and glacial origin offers its students a rich scientific learning experience. Seventh graders recently used a day at the beach to enhance their studies in the classroom.

The field trip engaged students in exploring the varied geography of Long Island and helped them relate these differences to the forces that created and still shape the Island today. Science, social studies and English standards were addressed as students traveled from the rocky North Shore beaches on the Sound through the farmlands of the North Fork, across the Peconic River to the sandy South Shore beaches of Ponquogue. At each stop, students worked in groups and rotated through different activities designed to exemplify the unique features of that particular beach.

Teachers from each discipline led students through their assignments. Firsthand learning experiences on the beaches helped students put the material learned in their 7th grade geology unit into perspective. Students traveled to four sites on three area beaches: Ponquogue, Indian Island, and Reeves Park. At each stop they completed different tasks.

At Reeves Beach, Mindy Benze (RMS English teacher) encouraged her students to work on their descriptive writing skills. They used the beach for inspiration. When the students return to school after the Memorial Day weekend break, they will use this experience to complete a more extensive creative writing project.

Students worked with Kevin Hewkin (RMS social studies teacher) at the Indian Island Picnic Area to learn the archaeological processes used when digging for bones and artifacts. Students dug up bones and investigated the artifacts left behind by Native Americans in this area.

Also at Indian Island, but on the beach, RMS science teacher Kristen Realander gave her students the chance to wear waders and drag a seining net through the water where they excitedly netted assorted animals such as needle fish, killies, whelks, mud snails, etc. For many this was their first experience at finding and holding these animals.

Students explored the ocean beach with Mr. Sanders (RMS Science teacher) at Ponquogue. Mr. Sanders guided the seventh graders in their study on the beach as they searched the beach for the effects of human intervention as well as natural erosion.

# # # #