Sanctuary invites science teachers to apply for program
The Chesapeake Bay beckons, and area teachers are invited to apply for a 2-day program that would include studying on site this summer.
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Science teachers who visit the Chesapeake Bay can expect to return with a great deal of information to share with their students, Lehman Sanctuary President Chris Miller said.
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Shown from left are Frank Caputo, Grants & Scholarships manager, Scranton Area Community Foundation; Christopher Miller, Lehman Sanctuary president and founder, and Cathy Fitzpatrick, director of Grants & Scholarships, Scranton Area Community Foundation.
Submitted Photo
The Robert H. Spitz Foundation recently awarded a $10,000 grant to the Lehman Sanctuary to supports its Waters Connected Chesapeake Teachers Training Program.
And for perhaps as many as 20 area science teachers, that means their classroom is about to “get bigger.”
“For the last 15 years we’ve had hundreds and hundreds of students and teachers visit the sanctuary to talk about the ground we walk on that holds water,” said Chris Miller, who founded the non-profit, educational sanctuary in Lehman Township, near Shavertown.
Sanctuary visitors hear the message that “all water is connected,” and that water from the old-growth, forested wetlands at the Lehman Sanctuary travels via the East Fork of Harveys Creek and the Susquehanna River’s huge watershed system into the Chesapeake Bay, which is the largest estuary in the United States.
By taking teachers to the Bay for a two-day program in the summer, likely in mid-July, Miller said, “it will close the circle. It will be really cool for teachers to experience the whole loop… the magic that is the Chesapeake.”
Teachers of science on all grade levels are invited to apply, Miller said, as are college students who are preparing to become teachers.
The training program would likely include a full day aboard a Chesapeake Bay Living Classrooms Foundation instructional boat, plus a day of watershed workshops off the water.
Miller said he expects he and Dr. Cosima Wiese, chair of the biology department at Misericordia University, would accompany the local teachers.
Whether or not teachers apply for the 2-day program, they are invited to arrange to a field trip to the local sanctuary for their students.
“We have programs for all ages, about forested wetlands, amphibians, insects, birding and habitat,” Miller said. “There is a lull in the heart of winter, through late February, but from March through November it really kicks in.”
For more information about field trips to the Lehman Sanctuary, or to apply for the teachers’ 2-day instructional program, contact lehmansanctuary@gmail.com/.
“We are so grateful to the Robert Spitz Foundation for their significant support,” Miller said. “Wetlands are the very beginning of clean water and all water is connected. The waters we manage here in NEPA impact our multi-state neighbors downriver.”
The Robert H. Spitz Foundation, administered by the Scranton Area Community Foundation, is a tax-exempt private foundation that supports initiatives and programs that improve Northeastern Pennsylvania. To date, it has provided more than $6 million to the community.
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