THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 27, 1995 TAG: 9510260172
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: By PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 130 lines
LIGHT BREEZES RIPPLED the river's surface as the morning sun shone down on Portside. Cathy Roberts, science teacher at Waters Middle School, had picked a perfect day to take 24 of her seventh grade students on a boat ride.
Or so Roberts thought.
The youngsters, however, were not at all sure. Standing along the Seawall, they warily eyed the Baywatcher, a 42-foot-long Chesapeake Bay deadrise, as it bobbed gently up and down in the water.
Patrice Michael, 12, said she had expected a bigger boat, something more the size of the Spirit of Norfolk or the Elizabeth River ferry, the only two boats she had ridden before.
``This one rocks too much,'' she said, giggling just a little. ``It makes me nervous.''
Captain Chuck, skipper of the Baywatcher and otherwise known as Charles Sears, a Portsmouth resident, realized that a number of other students were as leery as Patrice.
``We have taken out thousands of students and not lost one - yet,'' he joked as he handed out life vests and demonstrated the proper way to wear them.
Pointing out the bow and stern (``No, not the caboose,'' Sears gently corrected), the captain introduced the Baywatcher to its passengers. The boat was custom-built in Deltaville in 1983 for a waterman who went bankrupt before the boat was finished. The work boat is now one of several floating classrooms operated by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
Built sturdily for rough water with a high bow, the boat draws less than three feet of water and can easily maneuver into shallow waters.
Soon the excitement of the trip and a day out of the schoolroom won over any lingering doubters. The students and a handful of adults, including School Superintendent Richard Trumble, clambered aboard.
Roberts and Tom Acree, a history teacher at Waters, are part of the Waters' teaching team that created an interdisciplinary curriculum focusing on the Chesapeake Bay and the importance of its ecology. The teaching unit has earned a two-year grant from the Virginia state Department of Education.
The Baywatcher field trip was just one of several hands-on projects that the teaching team has incorporated into the Chesapeake Bay unit.
During the second semester of the school year, the seventh-graders will use their new environmental knowledge to teach similar lessons to second-graders at Simonsdale Elementary School.
``Focusing on the Chesapeake Bay gives us a way to teach ecology connected with something the students can relate to,'' Roberts said.
After a short cruise down the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River, the Baywatcher anchored within view of a large floating drydock. Sears pointed out how the drydock was curtained to trap debris from the ship repair work within the drydock area instead of allowing it to fly into the river.
Using satellite maps and road maps, the teachers and Liz Schleeper, Chesapeake Bay Foundation education manager, oriented the youngsters, pointing out their closeness to the Bay.
When Schleeper and Sears broke out the water testing equipment, youngsters eagerly reached for the instruments, ready to learn how to test the river's pH, salinity, clarity and temperature.
``I am used to being in boats because my uncle has one but I never thought about the water temperature and stuff like that before,'' Oris Key, 13, said.
Kimberly Darden, 12, forgot all about her initial boat fears when she got involved in testing for the water's salinity.
``It measured 22 parts per thousand and that means if you had a thousand buckets of water, 22 of them would be salt,'' she said.
Schleeper and Sears demonstrated a bottom grab, where a small scoop pulled up a sample of the thick, black mud from the river bed. Wearing heavy rubber gloves, Schleeper poked through the oozing mass and explained how toxins work their way to the bottom.
``It is pretty yucky stuff,'' she admitted.
``Smell the air,'' Sears commanded as the breeze wafted a distinctly creosote smell over the boat. ``Does it smell like wet telephone poles?
``This part of the Elizabeth River is on the environmental hit list,'' he said, adding that the creosote plant, the shipyards and other industries are working to help improve the water quality.
``When you point to industry and say that is the bad guy, that is not right,'' he added. ``We all pollute.''
After a break for bag lunches, the Baywatcher moved onto the Western Branch of the river where the water was considerably cleaner. Here the youngsters were able to gather specimens for the salt water aquariums they had prepared back in their classrooms as well as plankton they could examine under a microscope right on the boat.
Using a specially sanctioned net, the class collected crabs, shrimp, stripers and croaker. They also captured a few squid, one of whom retaliated by inking a student. Charmed by the squid's audacity, the class promptly named him ``Inky Doodle'' and proclaimed him the class pet.
``The kids feel more of an ownership in the project if they have helped to gather the specimens and not just bought them somewhere,'' Roberts said.
Ownership in an even larger sense is what prompted an Annapolis, Md., citizen group to organize the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in 1966, when the Bay was so polluted many experts pronounced it dead. With a membership of more than 85,000, the foundation works to restore the Bay through environmental education and conservation.
The Baywatcher is one of a fleet of watercraft operated by the foundation to educate 35,000 people a year.
``We have seen real progress, particularly in the last 10 years,'' Mike Kensler, manager of the Hampton Roads office of the foundation, said. ``We are now at 20 percent of what the Bay was in 1600 in health and cleanliness.''
Trumble was one of the Baywatcher's most enthusiastic passengers.
``Where else can you get a floating classroom that you can take all over the place?'' he asked.
Why had the superintendent decided to come along on this particular field trip?
``Because I was invited,'' he said with a laugh. ``Most of the time no one thinks to invite the superintendent.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo on cover by Mark Mitchell
Liz Schleeper, Chesapeake Bay Foundation education manager explains
how the water testing equipment works to students from Waters Junior
High School in Portsmouth.
Staff photos by MARK MITCHELL
The Baywatcher, a 42-foot Chesapeake Bay deadrise, is one of several
floating classrooms operated by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
Student Brnadon Link watches as ``Captain Chuck,'' Charles Sears of
Portsmouth, brings up a sample of black mud from the bottom of the
river.
Students from Waters Middle School scan the area along the Elizabeth
River while aboard the Baywatcher, the floating classroom of the
Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
KEYWORDS: ELIZABETH RIVER FLOATING CLASSROOM by CNB