Wading into a river that formed when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth, Yonkers Public Schools students from Riverside High School and Museum School 25 contributed to ongoing scientific research during the annual A Day in the Life of the Hudson River Estuary program sponsored by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
Deploying seine nets by hand the same way as the people indigenous to the Hudson Valley had centuries before, the students used 21st century water testing kits to investigate aquatic life, water chemistry, and physical conditions in the mid-day shadows of the steep basalt cliffs of the Palisades.
They were not alone. Students from more than 40 schools were stationed along the southern half of the Hudson estuary system, stretching from Peebles Island at the confluence of the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers, to the Canarsie Pier on Jamaica Bay, collecting data to produce a "snapshot" of conditions along their respective sections.
With the Hudson River literally in their backyard, the Riverside and Museum school students relished the chance to study it, and to retrieve treasures of the deep from the net.
The Hudson's complex and fragile ecosystem is exquisitely vulnerable to human impact. The findings of their research will help the students identify what has improved, and what has not.
Prior to the students taking to the river, Riverside High School teachers worked with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to master various data collection techniques. We are all students in the Yonkers Public Schools.
Principal photography by Maurice Mercado, City of Yonkers. Additional photography contributed by Alex Servello, Director of Science, Yonkers Public Schools. With thanks to Riverkeeper, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the teachers who inspire us, and to the students who are at the heart of all we do. Every. Single. Day.
Credits:
Principal photography by Maurice Mercado, City of Yonkers. Additional photography contributed by Alex Servello, Director of Science, Yonkers Public Schools. With thanks to the teachers who inspire us, and to the students who are at the heart of all we do, every single day.