CBF-PA: Media Invited To Paddle Along As Students Explore Local PA Waterways

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation-PA invites media representatives to join local students, grades 6 through 12, for a day of watershed exploration with the Susquehanna Watershed Environmental Education Program (SWEEP).

SWEEP, one of CBF’s field education programs, has been providing hands-on experiential learning programs in Pennsylvania for 28 years. Over 48,000 Pennsylvania students have participated in the programs.

This year students from Adams, Cambria, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Perry, Union and York counties will participate.

SWEEP will guide students through a series of water quality programs designed to reinforce in-class lessons and to emphasize the importance of clean water.

Students enjoy the opportunity to paddle a canoe. They will also investigate the health of local waterways through a variety of hands-on activities like up-close studies of the bugs and other species living in the waterway; studying the physical characteristics of the waterway, the shoreline, and the adjoining lands; using water chemistry tests to determine quality; and by using maps to orient students with their specific watershed.

The purpose of the program is to provide field experiences that help students build a critical connection to the natural world in which they live that will motivate their decision-making as they develop into citizens and future leaders in Pennsylvania.

This spring season, our education team will work with 16 regional groups in 9 counties to get students out onto the water.

You can find our team on a local river or stream doing what they do best – teaching students about the importance of water quality, how stream systems work, and conducting hands-on experiments that engage and excite a student’s sense of exploration.

The spring season begins March 29 and ends June 3.

For more info or to schedule time on the water with students and our SWEEP team, contact B.J. Small, PA Media and Communications Coordinator, at 717-200-4521, or send email to: bsmall@cbf.org.

Click Here for a copy of the complete advisory, including dates and places for the SWEEP programs.

For more on Chesapeake Bay-related issues in Pennsylvania, visit the Chesapeake Bay Foundation-PA webpage.  Click Here to sign up for Pennsylvania updates (bottom of left column).  Click Here to support their work.