Field trip takes teachers to the Chesapeake Bay
By Elizabeth Coe
Teaching Loudoun County students about the Chesapeake Bay can be difficult, according to Dominion High School teacher Laurie Gould.
"We're in an urban area," said Gould, who teaches Earth science at the Sterling school. "A lot of our kids don't spend a lot of time outside. They know the water in the Potomac River is brown, but they don't know why or how that could be connected to decisions they make."
That's why last week, Gould and co-worker Mary Young-Lutz, who teaches biology, joined eight other teachers from schools across Loudoun County on a trip exploring the watershed of the Chesapeake Bay.
Gwen Pearson, coordinator of the trip sponsored by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said the trip included traveling and camping along the watershed of the bay, learning how to better incorporate lessons about the bay into their curriculum.
The schedule included canoing down a creek, learning about oysters, visiting the Reedville Fishermen's Museum and taking a boat to Tangier Island where they could explore the local wildlife.
The trip began on the morning of Aug. 11 with a tour of a local sustainable farm, Chicama Run Farm in Purcellville.
Dana Sacco, who runs the farm, raises chickens, sheep, cows, goats, ducks, pigs and llamas, and she does it all using natural, free-range methods.
"We are sustainable agriculture. We are sustaining the land," she said as she explained her system of rotating animals through the farm's eight pastures, giving different areas of pasture a break at times.
Sacco's farm is not harmful to the watershed of the bay because she does not use any chemicals on the land, and the animals are free-range or grass-fed, she said. The animals also are prevented from entering a stream that is part of the Catoctin Creek watershed, eventually flowing into the Potomac River and then into the bay.
Sacco said she sells all her products at local farmers markets, the Paeonian Grocery and Gourmet, Crooked Run Orchard and on her own farm. She said she does not use fuel to ship anything out.
After the farm tour, the teachers said they were excited to learn from the environment and how they can teach students about the bay.
"I want to get more familiar with the watershed and find some better hooks to hook my kids to nature," said Chuck Bowler, a seventh-grade life-science teacher at Sterling Middle School. "[The students] have a tie into all this technology, but they don't have a tie with nature."
Contact the reporter at ecoe@timespapers.com