The Harbor School Garden Club has been busy this spring. Students have been hard at work twice a week after school in the garden doing a range of activities. All of the prep work we have been doing, such as cleaning the dead leaves and branches from the garden beds, turning compost into the soil, weeding and sowing seeds has finally paid off. In early May we harvested our first crop of vegetables — beautiful red spring radishes! Many of the radishes were eaten by students right there in the garden, and the remainder were distributed amongst students and staff to take home.
Students, along with members of the cafeteria staff, have been hard at work transforming a portion of the garden into a vegetable garden. So far we have planted tomatoes, sugar snap peas, lettuce, cabbage, okra, carrots, eggplants, peppers, beets, pumpkins, chard, cauliflower, basil and herbs. The cafeteria has agreed to incorporate the produce grown in the garden into school lunches, and we are looking forward to enjoying the first salad made with our super-locally grown veggies later this month! We are thankful for the support of Green Thumb and Grow to Learn, which have provided us with all of our seeds, seedlings and garden tools this spring at no-cost.
Click here for pictures of these students out in New York Harbor on Harbor School vessels!
On Sunday, April 29, Harbor Corps, represented the school at the 2012 opening day of the New Amsterdam Market. Harbor Corps students from grades 9 through 12 spent the day introducing market visitors to the school and location on Governors Island, answering questions about their Career and Technical Education programs of study, and sharing the school’s ambitious vision of restoring oysters to New York Harbor. In keeping with the theme of the market, countless visitors asked students whether the oysters they are growing can be eaten. Students explained that while New York Harbor oysters aren’t yet ready for the raw bar, they are invaluable for the many ecosystem services - like improved water quality and habitat - they provide. The New Amsterdam Market is a reinvention of the traditional New York City public market, and features small food-related businesses and vendors who feature regional, seasonal ingredients and imports. Its vision is to revive the historic Fulton Fish Market. We thank our partners at the New Amsterdam Market for providing Harbor School with this opportunity!
Click here to see pictures of this great day!
Only at Harbor School would 20 students go fishing off Yankee Pier on a cool and drizzly Wednesday afternoon. We were fortunate to be joined today by Melissa Cohen, a biologist with NYSDEC, who arranged for a loan of rods and reels to the Fishing Club and who is already looking forward to fishing with us next fall. With a group this size, extra hands are always welcome, so please come join us if you can spare the time. The club will be meeting on Thursday for the next several weeks. Click here to see the kids in action. No, I do not have a shot of the enormous striped bass that Henri (in the yellow slicker) pulled out of the water just as we were getting ready leave the pier; my camera battery had died by that point, but several students took pictures with their cell phones.
Derek Thompson- Skidmore (HEOP), Stony Brook (EOP)
Shalia Hicks- Cornell, Wesleyan
Devin Mojica- Fordham (HEOP)
Todtiyana Bowen- U. of Miami
Hanaa Butcher- Warren Wilson (her top choice)
DATE: 16 February, 2012
LOCAL STUDENTS SAILING THROUGH THE SEMESTER
BOOTHBAY HARBOR, ME: Local New York Harbor School student Patricia Tapia is one of 20 students currently sailing the 125’ schooner Harvey Gamage from the Caribbean to New England as part of the Ocean Classroom Discovery high school semester at sea. In addition to carrying a full academic course load, students are full participants in the operation of the vessel, standing watch around the clock and learning all the traditional skills of a sailor. These students will spend four months studying, working, and living aboard the ship before returning to Boston on May 20th.
Their classes are taught by a team of professional educators and include oceanography, marine science, US maritime history, maritime and Caribbean literature, applied mathematics (navigation) and physics (principles of sailing). Courses are accredited by Proctor Academy of Andover, NH and credits are transferred to each student’s home school. This unique learning expedition also provides leadership training and cultural immersion. Students will spend a week engaged in a service project at a women’s agricultural cooperative, an eco-farm established to improve the nutrition and economic circumstances of local families in the Dominican Republic.
Parents, teachers, and friends can follow their adventure via the voyage blog atwww.oceanclassroom.blogspot.com<http://www.oceanclassroom.blogspot.com/>, or via the Ocean Classroom Facebook page and Twitter feed.
Ocean Classroom was recently awarded the Sail Training Program of the Year by Tall Ships America (formerly the American Sail Training Association). Ocean Classroom is presently accepting applications for the 2013 Discovery spring semester at sea, and for this summer’s one and two week Seafaring Adventure Camps for ages 12-18.
A non-profit educational organization founded in 1996, Boothbay Harbor-based Ocean Classroom Foundation’s Annual Appeal is underway, seeking donations of all sizes to provide scholarships to enable participation for students of lesser means, and to support capital improvements to their fleet of historic vessels. For more information or to make a donation, please call 1-800-724-SAIL, or visitwww.oceanclassroom.org<http://www.oceanclassroom.org/> .
Ocean Classroom Foundation
On February 7th, the Marine Biology Research students presented to visitors from the New York/New Jersey Port Authority, MG McLaren Marine Engineers, as well as other organizations. The Consulate General of the Netherlands was also in attendance.
Tuesday - January 17th: I FISH NY Clinic at Harbor School!
On Thursday, January 17, more than a dozen members of Harbor School’s new after school Fishing Club participated in the first of a series of winter clinics led by Darin Alberry from the I FISH NY program of the NYSDEC. Mr. Alberry introduced the students to state regulations governing recreational fishing, talked to them about basic fish biology and taught them how to tie several fishing knots and put together a fish finder rig consisting of a hook, line, sinker and swivel. There will be two more winter clinics, in February and March, and the club will start fishing off Governors Island in April.
-Matthew Haiken
Nathan & Rocio are the only ones who have seen a turtle, and Liv & Tiffany saw the Manta Ray!
Liv & Joe
