FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

A group of 16 teachers sharpened their science skills last week when they toured various sites throughout Bucks County during the 11th annual Delaware Estuary Watershed Workshop for Teachers. Since 1997, this weeklong training session organized by the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary has helped more than 150 educators in the region gain professional instruction in environmental science they can later use in the classroom, and beyond.

This year’s group, including 13 teachers from Southeast Pa., paid $50 each for training and teaching materials valued at over $2,000 thanks to support from the Bucks County Conservation District and the Pennsylvania Bureau of State Parks.

Demonstration sites ranged as far north as Doylestown, Pa., to as far south as Lewes, Del., providing participants with a better perspective of the Delaware Estuary in which they work and reside. These excursions offered a variety of laboratory experiments, field experiences, and lectures on topics such as identifying and sampling fish populations, water chemistry, wildlife conservation, and much more.

“Workshops of this nature are a terrific way to boost ecological literacy among today’s youth,” said the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary’s Science Director, Dr. Danielle Kreeger, who also treated teachers to an August 9 presentation on wetlands at the site of Public Service Enterprise Group’s Estuary Enhancement Program in Alloway, N.J. “Unlike reading, writing, and arithmetic, there aren’t as many tools readily available for teachers to instruct students on environmental science, but this and other programs help to fill those gaps.”

In addition to the training they received, each teacher who successfully completed the workshop took home $250 worth of educational materials and equipment. They also earned clock hours, continuing professional education hours, or professional development hours, all of which will help them renew their teaching certificates in their respective state or commonwealth.

For more information on the Delaware Estuary Watershed Workshop for Teachers, please call Lisa Wool, program director at the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, at (800) 445-4935, extension 105, or visit www.DelawareEstuary.org.