The Bronx River Billion Oyster Project
Over the past couple of months, the students at New Visions AMS II have taken on a massive challenge: Transforming the landscape of the Bronx River with the help of an unlikely tool...Oysters! The students in Mr. Stellato’s Marine Biology class have their own oyster cage set up in the Bronx River, which is part of the Billion Oyster Project, something we're doing with other schools throughout NYC. We all collect data with our students and input it together online.
The big picture reason we're doing this is because oysters help filter toxins out of the water- gallons every day! So the idea is that it will remove some of the excess nitrogen in the water. They're also ecosystem engineers so they help pave the way for other populations to be successful in waterways around New York harbor. This data collection is practice for some of the challenge-based learning work that the students are going to be doing on the international science trip we're planning for the end of the year.
Later in the course there is an opportunity for students to go on an international marine biology trip and get immersed in data collection in .This data collection and analysis will serve as a platform for the more rigorous work they'll be doing with our international studies