Fresh to Salt: Flowing Together connects students, teachers, and conservation leaders through collaborative experiences within Maine’s watersheds.
Mission
Vision
Students take an active role in the health of a watershed so everyone benefits.
Who We Are
For nearly 25 years as a non-profit, Herring Gut Coastal Science Center has been bringing experiential education in marine science, aquaculture and aquaponics to Midcoast Maine. We work with K-12 students, educators, and community members to improve ocean and climate literacy.
What
Herring Gut’s Fresh to Salt: Flowing Together project bridges fresh and salt ecosystems by offering expeditions to Kennebec River field sites, collaborative data collection, analysis, and stewardship opportunities. An essential question students will answer is “How am I connected to my local watershed?” The Herring Gut Education Team offers its scientific and environmental education expertise to school systems and partner conservation organizations in the Kennebec River Watershed with in-person and virtual support throughout the project.
Why
The health of the ocean and its estuaries is inextricably linked to everyday living and decisions made upstream. Preparing the next generation of young people to make critical, science-based decisions about where they live matters to all of us. In this project, communities come together to learn about the ecological systems that support clean water flowing from where they live to the sea. Participants can help maintain a healthy water system that benefits residents of the watershed, the business community and economy, and the natural environment, thus leading to a great quality of life.
How
We Will:
- Facilitate a summer professional learning academy where we empower teachers to prepare middle school students to explore and analyze the ecological systems in the watershed where they live.
- Provide teachers with specially tailored training, resources, on-going support, and regional networking opportunities that link the communities in their watershed.
- Prepare students to think critically about their role in the health of the environmental systems that link their hometowns to their neighbors and to the sea.
“A drop of water, if it could write out its own history, would explain the universe to us.”
– Lucy Larcom