The Watermen’s Museum in Yorktown is launching a new, free education program for students to learn about sea level rise… and what better way to boost support for the program than a maritime-themed concert?
On Friday, March 2, the museum will host a performance by Janie Meneely and Rob van Sante, along with a wine-and-cheese reception for guests to mingle with the musicians and learn more about the new curriculum.
Michael Steen, the education director at the Watermen’s Museum, tells Bay Bulletin that the curriculum, called “Living in Our Shared World” will include both onsite and outreach programs.
Onsite, the museum staff and volunteers will work with groups of special needs and at-risk youth. Groups will get to learn about sea level rise, oyster reefs, installing living shorelines, and monitoring habitat. They will also offer a summer camp this year focused on Sea Level Rise.
Offsite, the museum’s outreach program engages 5th-grade classes from schools in the region to “think about global warming and how it will affect them, their families, and their communities.” The free program includes “stations” for students to rotate through—Global Warming and Ocean Currents, Sinking Shorelines and Plate Tectonics, Climate Change and Habitat Adaptation, Changing Animal Populations, and Sea Level Rise in Our Own Backyard.
The Watermen’s Museum also hopes to develop a special exhibition about the program to promote coastal resiliency planning. All in all, it’s an ambitious plan.
Steen says, “It’s a big job that the staff of two here at the museum is undertaking. We rely on our friends and museum volunteers to help us pull it all together.”
The concert promoting the program will be Friday, March 2, with the reception beginning at 5 p.m. and the music beginning at 6 pm. Tickets are $10 and the museum recommends getting them in advance. For information on how to buy, click here.
Janie Meneely and Rob van Sante have a full lineup of performances this winter and spring. Read more about their 2018 tour in the Bay Bulletin here.
