Education

In July 2022, Mill River Greenway Initiative River Guides Wendy Stein and Karen Bryant, partnered with Sarah Johnson, Forbes Library Head of Children’s and  Young Adult Services, to present to the community MRGI’s Mill Riverwalk Adventure Kit for the Young Child.

As you can see from the story unfolding in pictures above, the children enjoyed reading river related stories, as well as creating their own boats to float on a makeshift tin foil river.  John Sinton, one of the MRGI founders and author of Devil’s Den to Lickingwater: The Mill River Through Landscape and History, inspired developing an educational component.  Wendy and Karen, inspired by John and other MRGI educators, collaborated in designing Riverwalks for families in the community to access from the public library.

The Mill Riverwalk Adventure Kit for the Young Child is geared loosely for children pre-k through first grade and is the first of two experiential self-guided pilot programs being introduced.

Stay tuned, the Mill River Explorers for Elementary Kids will be available in the near future!  Like the younger child version, it will be available for check out from Forbes Library.

Written by Wendy Stein
MRGI River Guide and former Preschool Director

In late May, Mill River educators finally got INTO the river, after a year of workshops exploring Mill River mapping, environmental art, history and storytelling. For the fourth RIVER workshop of 2021-22, Brita Dempsey facilitated a streamside investigation of macroinvertebrates, in collaboration with Jan Szymaszek. Educators from local schools and the Smith College Museum of Art dipped their feet and nets into the river and were enthralled to learn about the secret lives and huge significance of tiny organisms living underneath the water. 

Brita’s enthusiasm sparkled like the afternoon sun on the stream as she turned over stones and showed us creatures clinging to the shiny undersides. Many of us were surprised to discover that squiggles we might have mistaken for scratches or dirt were in fact immature aquatic insects. One teacher reflected how exciting it was to “discover things that we hadn’t seen before that were there all along.”

Bursting with questions about the wriggling nymphs we observed up close in tubs of water, Brita directed us to diagrams to help us identify and categorize what we were seeing. Brita and John Sinton shared their expertise about macroinvertebrate behavior, including the distinction between “clingers” and “swimmers.” John helped us imagine how caddisflies “connect the river” by making webs of silk thread to catch their food. 

“Is the caddisfly eating the mayfly, or eating algae off the mayfly?” Drama abounded in the squirming world we observed through magnifying glasses. Everyone noticed something different. One teacher was surprised to find many different kinds of mayflies. Another teacher reflected on a “renewed sense of reverence for the river.” Everyone felt a sense of wonder and curiosity: “mystery makes me curious to find out what else I can learn!” The more we learned, the more we began to appreciate the significance of macroinvertebrates as river keepers and indicators of stream health. The critters we found, including caddisflies, mayflies and stoneflies, are classified as “Group One” organisms, indicating good water quality.

As if she had planned a final trick to conclude her magic show, Brita brought our attention to an insect on a rock, in a spotlight of sunshine, right at our feet. It was a winged adult stonefly! We were thrilled to see the adult version of nymphs we had just observed in the water. Brita smiled at our enthusiasm, “It’s so cool to get to share this with people!” Brita followed up with a curated list of resources (see below) to help all of us share the wriggling world of macroinvertebrates with students and colleagues. Happy summer and we hope you will get into a river near you and investigate what’s living under the water!

Written by Carol Berner, on behalf of the Mill River Guides

Resources shared by Brita Dempsey:

• Stroud Water Research Center, Identification Guide to Freshwater Macroinvertebrates 
• Macroinvertebrates.org
• Leafpack Network (great way to collect critters without a net)
• Rock Pack Experiment (caddisflies are awesome!)
• Wade Institute has a PD workshop that includes Macroinvertebrate sampling

 

Mill River education kick-off event

The importance of “slowing down” and “paying attention” were key takeaways for participants in the Mill River nature journaling workshop on a balmy afternoon in early October. Seven educators and five River Guides gathered along the Mill River trail for the 2021 kick-off event of  River Inquiry via Exploration of our Region. Teachers spanned grade levels from early elementary through higher education and settings from community gardens to environmental clubs. Carol Berner and Jan Szymaszek co-facilitated the activity, welcoming new and returning teachers to the Mill River educator network — an initiative launched in 2019 and interrupted by the pandemic. Several participants knew each other and were excited and grateful to be reconnecting on a sunny afternoon by the river. 

Event mapping from Pebble Beach

Jan led the group along the Mill River trail to “Pebble Beach,” a name given by 3rd graders who frequented this flotsam-strewn meander during their annual river study. Carol introduced the group to a journaling activity called Event Mapping, in which an explorer records their wandering path with a mix of words, images and symbols. “The purpose is to create a trail of encounters as you, the explorer, move through a particular place, at a particular moment, asking, ‘What’s going on here?’” (from Hannah Hinchman, A Trail Through Leaves). Carol invited participants to disperse and explore along the river for the next thirty minutes, before reconvening to debrief their experiences. 

Slowing down, paying attention and questioning

“I sat on a sun-drenched rock I’d never seen before,” shared one teacher who had walked her dogs along this trail for years. Karen wondered, “how could there be tadpoles this time of year?” Katie perched on a boulder, feet dangling in the water, writing and sketching. Natalee found poop bags everywhere she looked and concluded: “We need to educate others about taking care of our environment for all to enjoy. I love nature and dogs, but we are not alone… one dog poop left on the river is one too many.” Flotsam of all kinds caught people’s attention, raising questions about how the river shapes the land and how people shape the river. 

Takeaways and bringing the experience to students

De-briefing their experiences, participants highlighted the quality of time: “Taking time to settle in, slow down and notice” and “how valuable it is to observe undistracted for a good length of time.” Teachers were eager to bring this experience to their students. Sally Imbibo facilitated event mapping with the JFK Middle School Environmental Club and reflected, “every student was totally engaged.” The October kick-off event inspired participants and facilitators alike to feel “appreciation and gratitude for the opportunity to be in a beautiful place,” and to request “more of the same!” in anticipation of future workshops. 

Looking ahead: next steps for River Inquiry 

Look for a survey requesting YOUR input on future River Inquiry educational opportunities. Here are some of the ideas generated by participants in the October workshop: 

Watercoloring with water from the river.
Photography of the river’s edge.
Poetry writing about the river.
Hands -on science experiment with the river.
Could you do this with an ELL lens?
More open-ended experiences like this.
Learning about history and natural history of the river
More of the same!!

 

Virtual launch of children’s book about Mill River flood (coming in January, 2022)

Author, artist and educator Nancy Meagher will host a live reading of her book Millicent and the Day it Rained Buttons, a lively re-telling of the 1874 Mill River flood featuring real-life factory girls, historic artifacts and a spotted brook trout named Millicent. Explore with other educators how this book might inspire and inform classroom curriculum across disciplines of social studies, art, engineering, poetry, mapping and civics. 

Post written by Carol Berner
Photography by Brita Dempsey

With thanks to John Sinton, Gaby Immerman & the River Guides:
Karen Bryant, Brita Dempsey, Wendy and Freeman Stein, Jan Szymaszek.