Hudson River Project: Coordinated efforts bringing teachers and students together to study the Hudson River with Margie Turrin and Tim Kenna (Oct 2006)

by | Jul 25, 2023 | Hudson River Studies, Uncategorized

with Margie Turrin and Tim Kenna

Originally presented 14 Oct 2006

Margie Turrin is Lamont’ Education Coordinator and involved in several LDEO projects investigating aspects of the Hudson River. These include “Day in the Life” (previously known as “Snapshot Day,”) an annual opportunity for teachers and students to collect data and produce a “snapshot” of the river. The most recent took place on the Thursday before this Workshop, 12 Oct. Margie has previously shared some of her LDEO activities during the December 2004 “AMS@LDEO” program.

Tim Kenna is a Doherty Associate Research Scientist whose research focuses on sediments and contaminant transport.

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Margie will describe programs that foster understanding by teachers and their students of “real world data” within the curriculum. She will be joined in her presentations by several  E2C teachers involved with “Snapshot Day” and other programs here and elsewhere.

Last summer, Margie, Tim, and other scientists and teachers cruised up and down the Hudson aboard the SUNY-Stony Brook research vessel “Sea Wolf” during “River Summer.” Tim will discuss estuary circulation in the Hudson. Then, he and participants will work through an activity using data collected during River Summer as an example of possible student investigations using “real-life” data.

LDEO’s efforts to understand the Hudson River, which lies at the base of the Palisades on which the campus sits, go back to its earliest days in the later 1940s and early 1950s. Many of the geophysical techniques later used around the world were first tested as prototypes in the river and the nearby continental shelf and Hudson Canyon.

View Tim Kenna’s Estuary Circulation presentation

More information about some of LDEO’s many research investigations, as well as other resources useful for your classroom, can be found in the accompanying sections of this Workshop.

Introduction to this Workshop

Here is the introductory  pdf  slide show presented by Dr. Passow.

Previous E2CWorkshops about the Hudson River:

MARSH ARCHIVES OF THE HUDSON ESTUARY with Guest Scientist: Dorothy Peteet (Feb 2004)

THE RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT: THE HUDSON AND OUR LIVES with Guest Scientists: Robin Bell and Martin Visbeck (Feb 2003)

DIGGING UP THE DIRT ON THE HUDSON RIVER with  Guest Scientist: Robin Bell (Mar 2002)

 Suggested Readings:

“Heath Earth Science” (Spaulding & Namowitz)
Running 0ater: ch. 10

“Glencoe Earth Science”
Surface Water: Ch. 9

“Prentice Hall” (Tarbuck & Lutgens)
Running Water and Groundwater: ch. 6

“Amsco” (McGuire)
River Systems: ch. 12

Cutting-Edge Research

LDEO scientists have long studied the fascinating Hudson River that lies at the bottom of the Palisades on which the campus is located. Lamont’s interest in the Hudson and its offshore extension, the Hudson Canyon, date back to the earliest years of the Observatory in the late-40s and early 50s, when Columbia scientists tested out many of the sampling techniques later used all around the world in studies of the Canyon and vicinity.

In more recent school years and summers, investigators have continued to find out about the river’s interesting past and dynamic present processes. Margie Turrin works with several programs comprising the Center for Rivers and Estuaries. These include “Snapshot Day,” an opportunity for teachers and students to collected data and produce an annual “snapshot” of the river. Last summer, Margie, other LDEO scientists, teachers, and others involved with the “River Summer”  cruised up and down the river aboard the “Sea Wolf,” a SUNY Stony brook research vessel.

For more information about the LDEO

Center for Rivers and Estuaries:Research
Data, Maps, and ToolsPeople

Selected “Snapshot Day” Links:

Hudson River MapParameters Measured
Archived DataLesson Plans

Other LDEO Hudson River research:
“Mud Yields Ghosts of Hudson River’s Past”

Related LDEO Research:

“Physical and Biogeochemical Characteristics of Jamaica Bay”

Image Credit: http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/edu/k12/snapshotday/

Classroom Resources

LDEO Center for Rivers and Estuaries

Education and Outreach

Snapshot Day

Hudson River Basin Watch

Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC) Teacher Training Curriculum

Understanding Patterns of River Discharge – William Menke
Mohawk and Hudson River Discharge Data 1980 – 1997

FROM PREVIOUS E2C PROGRAMS:

“History of the Hudson River” — lesson plan by Linda Ruiz McCall
(E2C Participant)

“The Hudson River Canyon” — lesson plan (pdf)

“Wandering the Watershed: Sparkill/Piermont Region of the Hudson River”

Other Resources for This Topic

SELECTED HUDSON RIVER RESOURCES

Cary Institute of Ecological Studies: “Natural History of the Hudson River”

NYS Hudson River home page: http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/hudson/index.html

State of the Hudson — Resources from the Poughkeepsie Journal
http://poughkeepsiejournal.com/hudson/index.shtml

Sea Floor Topography and Backscatter Intensity of the Hudson Canyon Region Offshore of New York and New Jersey http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2004/1441/index.html

US Geological Survey programs in NYS: http://water.usgs.gov/wid/html/ny.html

US Geological Survey “Salt Front” datahttp://ny.usgs.gov/htdocs/dialer_plots/saltfront.html

USGS Hudson River Basin National Water Quality Assessment
http://wwwdnyalb.er.usgs.gov/projects/hdsn/

Geology of the New York Bight http://everest.hunter.cuny.edu/bight/index.html

New York Geology Resource Page http://www.albany.net/~go/newyorker/

Hudson River Links http://riverresource.com/text/Hudsonlinks.html

Palisades Interstate Park http://www.njpalisades.org/

GE and Hudson River Dredging:http://www.ge.com/en/citizenship/ehs/remedial/hudson/index.htm

OTHER GOVERNMENT AND UNIVERSITY RESOURCES

National Ocean Service www.nos.noaa.gov

Tide Predictions http://www.co-ops.nos.noaa.gov/tp4days.html

“Tides On Line” http://tidesonline.nos.noaa.gov/

Xtide Tide Prediction Server: http://xtide.ldeo.columbia.edu:8080/

EPA Surf Your Watershed: http://cfpub1.epa.gov/surf/locate/index.cfm
New York, including the Hudson River watershed segments:
http://cfpub1.epa.gov/surf/state.cfm?statepostal=NY

Partnership for the Delaware Estuary: http://www.delawareestuary.org/

Selected Bibliography about the Hudson River

Adams, A.G., 1996, The Hudson River Through the Years. Fordham Univ Pr; ISBN: 0823216772

Beard, J., 1970, Blue Water Views of Old New York. Scrimshaw Press, Barre, MA.
87155-115-2

Boyle, R. H., 1979, The Hudson River: A Natural and Unnatural History (The Norton Library; N 844). W.W. Norton & Company; ISBN: 0393008444

Mylod, J., 1969, Biography of a River: The People and Legends of the Hudson Valley. Bonanza Books, NY (0-517-L0208X)

Rajs, J., 1995, The Hudson River: from Lake Tear of the Clouds to Manhattan. Monacelli Press, New York, NY. 1-885254-10-5

Van Zandt, R., 1992, Chronicles of the Hudson: Three Centuries of Travel and Adventure. North Country Books; ISBN: 0962852333

Selected Videos and DVDs:

“World’s End: A Brief History of the Hudson Highlands”
Hudson River Film & Video, Indian Brook Road, Garrison NY 10524, 914-265-3405

“Hudson River Recovery: Choosing the Most Effective PCB Remedy”
GE Corporate Environmental Programs

Integrating Educational Technologies

Technology in Education

Thinking out of the Box

In order for you to make the best use of E2C materials, we have prepared a technology integration curriculum for you to follow. In each workshop, you will have some activities and/or readings to do to reflect on how you can best use all this technology in your classroom.

This first part was designed for you to start thinking about how deep the changes are in the educational process, now that we have more and more technology coming into our classrooms. How does technology affect you? How does it affect your students? Is it worth the trouble? Do the activities below and find out!

  • Activity 1Breaking paradigms
  • Discussion / reflection: What did this activity make you think about in relation to using computers in your classroom?
  • Presentation: read the following material to start thinking about how to integrate technology into your classroom:
  1. Teaching with Technology PowerPoint (start by reading Dr. Seuss’ technical manual)
  2. Constructivism as a Paradigm for Teaching and Learning http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/index.html
  •      Extra material: Introductory Presentation
  •      Activity 2: Creating Excel-Based Investigations
    Working in groups, create classroom activities using Excel spreadsheets that incorporate one or more of the databases used in this Workshop (or other E2C Workshops.)
    Final products will be added to the E2C web page resources, so if you need additional time to refine your work, make suitable arrangements for all group members to provide input. These can be sent electronically to michael@earth2class.org.
    You may wish to peruse some of the helpful tips provided by our E2C Educational Technology Coordinator, Dr. Cristiana M. Assumpcao: http://www.earth2class.org/er/edtech/index.php

Multimedia

IMAGES FROM THIS WORKSHOP

Margie Turrin and Tim Kenna — Hudson River Studies