Ipswich River as Outdoor Classroom: Local School Visits Riverbend

We love having youth groups visit and helping them to learn about this wonderful river. Recently, the 4th grade students from the Glen Urquhart School in Beverly (pictured above) visited Riverbend to learn about the river and to help with the spring Herring Count. With a year-long 4th grade curriculum that focuses on “The Sea”, visiting the watershed association fits right into their class discussions at this point in the year. As teacher Kelly Zaval explains, “Fish migration is a great starting point, as we have been talking about whale migration in class and saw eels that migrate in the other direction this fall at Mill Pond in Rockport. This all is a good segway to keeping the watershed healthy.”

The students sent wonderful thank you notes back to us, saying:

“I learned that a watershed is not a shed on water!”
“Thank you for helping us know all about fish and how they get up a stream.”
“I learned that Boxford has private wells for water. I live in Boxford!”
“I learned that the Ipswich River supplies drinking water for many towns – including us in Beverly.”

After having lunch by the river, students were trained in fish counting at the fish ladder over the Ipswich Mills Dam. The day of the visit was sunny and warm. With water temperatures at the peak level for fish migration, students were thrilled when they spotted some movement. Indeed, our video camera confirmed the passage of both lamprey and herring!

More schools and youth groups have made recent return-visits to Riverbend. The Landmark School arrived excited to paddle; they learned about our work protecting and restoring the river before venturing out on a trip that took them a good ways upstream of our Riverbend dock. Kestrel Educational Adventures, from Gloucester, visited to make use of our boats as part of a service learning project. The students and instructors are working on documenting and protecting amphibians and reptiles, and as the Kestrel Founder & Program Director Jessica Kagle put it, “the turtles on the Ipswich River are legendary.”

Ipswich River Programs Coordinator Ryan O’Donnell and volunteer extraordinaire Jim MacDougall visited Governor’s Academy, nets in tow, to instruct the students on sampling for macroinvertebrates. The presence, numbers, and varieties of benthic macroinvertebrate (bugs living on the river bottom) are good indicators of a river’s health.

We look forward to having many more students visit this spring and summer! If you would like more information about school visits, please contact Rachel Schneider or call 978-412-8200.