Greening STEM
A 2020-2023 NEEF, Samsung, and Bayer-funded
Environmental Education Initiative
National Environmental Education Foundation supports study of Teaneck Creek health in partnership with local middle schools
Continuing an initiative that began in 2020 and continued through the COVID-19 pandemic, 7th and 8th graders at both Thomas Jefferson Middle School and Benjamin Franklin Middle School are visiting sections of Teaneck Creek this spring to test the water quality.
"Students had the awesome opportunity to be a part of an ongoing investigation that gathered data to help monitor the health of the Creek. The two-day field study included water quality testing and macroinvertebrates identification, explained Dr. Antoinette Bush a science teacher with TJMS.
This week, the 7th graders at TJMS tested the water quality. The students did a thorough examination of the the water flowing through their school campus, testing the temperature, turbidity, salinity, as well as pH, nitrate and phosphate levels. The students will be able to take the data back to the classroom to analyze in comparison to data collected later this season and in previous years.
Past Years
Teaneck Creek Conservancy continues to partner with NEEF (National Environmental Education Foundation) on GreeningSTEM, an interdisciplinary school project with an environmental focus. As one of two pilot project locations in the nation, (the other being Miami-Dade County), Teaneck Creek continues to be excited for the unique opportunity to share about our watershed with local students.
In 2020, TCC partnered with Benjamin Franklin Middle School and expanded to include Thomas Jefferson Middle School in 2022, implementing a semester long program where students in the seventh and eighth grades became real citizen scientists. Each Wednesday, teachers prepared lessons focused on our watershed - from habitat to geography, history and language arts - encouraging students to take a deep dive into what makes their watershed so important! These weekly lessons culminated in two series of class trips where students will have hands on water science experiences. In the spring of 2020 and 2022, seventh graders will test water quality metrics such as temperature, pH, and salinity along Teaneck Creek. In contrast, eighth graders will be studying macroinvertebrate species at each field site along the Creek.
Once all the data is collected and compiled, students will be tasked with assessing the data across grades to create a watershed health report. The culminating task entails a comparison of data between two locations on the Creek at the beginning and end of spring.
This project was launched on February, 2020 with an assembly at Benjamin Franklin Middle School. Partners in attendance were Samsung Electronics America, NEEF (National Environmental Education Foundation), Teaneck Creek Conservancy, Bergen County Department of Parks, Montclair State University’s New Jersey Center for Water Science and Technology (NJCWST), Hackensack Riverkeeper, and teachers and faculty from Benjamin Franklin Middle School. With further funding, the project was resumed in Spring 2022 with the inclusion of Thomas Jefferson Middle School and Tenafly Nature Center.
Total students reached Spring 2020: 250
Total students reached Spring 2022: 481
Images from our kick-off assembly. A film crew is documenting our process - also included are some behind the scenes images of students being interviewed!
Follow our Greening STEM journey on our social media accounts through the tags #greeningSTEM and #WatershedWednesday
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