Summer Education at the Lab
MIMIC
Twice a month, at two different sites, SLL staff participated in the Marine Invasive Monitoring Information Collaborative (MIMIC). MIMIC is a participatory science effort organized by the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management. Participants are trained to identify native and invasive species that may appear along the Northwest Atlantic Coast.
The MIMIC program seeks to understand distribution of invaders, identify new invasive species, and to educate the public. Stone Living Lab samples for species off docks at UMass Boston and in Fort Point Channel, near the Boston Children’s Museum.
The Education Team facilitated a workshop for twenty youth from Mass Audubon, The Trustees of Reservations, and the Native Land Conservancy, using the MIMIC protocol. High school and college aged students were able to collect samples from the dock and analyze organisms using laboratory light microscopes. We were lucky to be joined by SLL Researcher Aly Putnam, who was able to share insights into their career as well as her impressive crab wrangling skills!
Science at the Park: Spectacle Island
Twice a week, Stone Living Lab and Boston Harbor Now interns collaborated with the National Parks Service to host ‘Science in the Park’ on Spectacle Island.
Visitors could use an infrared laser thermometer to learn about the urban heat island effect, identify crab shell specimens, match native species and their habitats, and more! Using Spectacle Island as an outdoor classroom allowed visitors to learn more about the environment they were enjoying that day.
Teacher Institute
For the fifth year, Stone Living Lab hosted the Summer Teacher Institute, a week-long workshop in place-based environmental learning for local K-12 educators. Learn more in the Teacher Institute recap!
Pop-up Programming and New Activities
Did you see the Education Team while out and about this summer? We brought our educational Climate Cart activities to over 29 different events around Boston this summer! From the Rose Kennedy Greenway to Carson Beach to the Esplanade, our team was busy chatting with locals and tourists alike about coastal resilience, climate change, and our changing oceans.
In collaboration with Boston Harbor Now, the SLL Education Team was able to pilot new activities this summer. The activities were intended to create space for participants to feel hope and agency in the face of climate change:
- The Climate Personality quiz assigns one (or sometimes two) personality types to the visitor and prompts them to write a ‘climate pledge’, an environmental action, using their freshly identified skillset.
- Climate Postcards prompt visitors to reflect on why they care for their environments, and to ask the same from their friends or family to whom they address the mail.
- The climate catcher, an origami fortune teller, is aimed at identifying people’s emotions about climate change, their current environment, and suggesting actionable steps.
- Interactive models allow visitors to engineer hybrid flood walls which combine a “green”, or Nature-Based Approach with a “gray”, or traditional infrastructure. Choices of flood walls come from the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Boston Coastal Storm Risk Management Assessment Study, and the activity aims to prompt public commentary from participants.
You can find all these new activities as well as our other resources on the SLL Education page of our website!
While the summer has winded down, we are looking forward to a busy fall and winter of engagement! Autumn means Wicked High Tides in Boston, be on the lookout for more information and resources in the coming weeks!
