Approximately 700 Students get Soggy and Sandy at Two-Day Seaside Summit

Approximately 700 5th - 8th grade students from 29 schools throughout Central and Northern NJ joined scientists and volunteer educators at Sandy Hook National Park for Clean Ocean Action’s (COA) 30th  Annual Spring Student Summit on Wednesday, May 16, 2018 and Thursday, May 17, 2018. Students participated in hands-on roundtable activities and interactive fieldtrips, with the beaches, trails and marshes of Sandy Hook as the classroom setting for each day.

Students participated in hands-on learning-table activities which included live horseshoe crabs, dune profiling, marine debris impacts, live invertebrates identification and biology, an EnviroScape demonstration in nonpoint source pollution, and climate change.

“It’s so inspiring to see children’s eyes light up with wonder when they see or
hold a horseshoe crab for the first time, or when they make the connection between clean beaches and healthy habitats for wildlife.  It’s at that moment that they become stewards of their watery world, and they want to make a difference, ” said Cindy Zipf, Executive Director of Clean Ocean Action.

Field activities included teaching students to use seine nets to collect and identify common marine species of Sandy Hook Bay, a Botany Walk, Salt March Adventures, Beach Sweeps, a Seaside Scavenger Hunt, Searching for Microplastics, Birding, Fishing Techniques, and a Holly Forest Walk. Students also participated in a special beach profiling activity highlighting the importance of dunes in protecting coastal habitat.

Clean Ocean Action thanks our partners making this event possible: Gateway National Recreation Area at Sandy Hook, The Marine Academy of Science & Technology (MAST), as well as the individual field trip leaders.

“There is nothing that replaces experiencing the marine environment up close and personal with sand , salt air and sea critters!  Clean Ocean Action is proud to be the host of this exciting event for 30 years, over which time tens of thousands of students have discovered their love of the coast and its wildlife, and may have become ocean stewards as a result.  Clean Ocean Action would like to thank the Park Service for its continued support, MAST faculty and its amazing students who serve as peer leaders, the many diverse presenters from New Jersey’s environmental community and, especially, the teachers and their students who appreciate and continue to support outdoor environmental education in New Jersey,” said Amanda Wheeler, COA’s Volunteer and Education Coordinator.