By AJ St. Martin, Education Intern on the Mystic Whaler

Rain, rain—go away! Despite the wet weather in Beacon, this week has been absolutely dynamite. Our volunteers rock, our students roll, and the Mystic Whaler educators and crew have been pumping up the volume in big ways.

After getting in the groove for several weeks, the other education interns and I feel equipped to take on new challenges. We’ve been stepping into some of the head educator duties; including coordinating sails and leading large group activities with students.

Included in this week’s innovations is a seine net demonstration. Seining from the shore in Beacon provides wonderful shallow water fish that students would rarely get to see otherwise, and our 4th and 5th graders are enthusiastic to discover how these fish are caught.

Games can also be effective teaching tools, and our new cargo game is no exception. Students get a taste of the adventures and challenges of loading, transporting and unloading cargo aboard both historic and modern Hudson River vessels. We also have an opportunity to discuss the energy costs of transportation in our area—how far did that banana travel to get here? Where was your t-shirt made? How did it get to you? How was the Hudson River affected? A whole new world of discovery and decision-making is brought to light.

I’ve also had a chance to lead several skits in a large group setting, and I am amazed at our students’ knack for theater. Once we are all in character (usually crew plays the students and the students play critters from the Hudson River estuary) we are faced with a challenging plot—our river, our home, is in peril! How can we be the heroes in this story? How can we clean up and protect the river?

As the actors and actresses morph back into elementary school students, we create a list of environmentally conscious practices for our everyday lives. The students this week came up with some incredible ideas—use less water, ride bikes or walk instead of riding in motorized vehicles, organize shoreline cleanups, eat locally grown food, and, most importantly, spread the word!

Our students are powerful, creative, uplifting evidence that Clearwater and the Mystic Whaler are inspiring and equipping young people to change the world. As you read this, I hope that you will in turn gather inspiration from them, and practice the 5 R’s every day—reduce, re-use, recycle, rock and roll!