Originally appears in the Fall 2011 issue

Ask a room full of teachers in a river community to share childhood memories and you’ll likely hear whimsical stories about fishing, swimming and boating on the river. But if you presented the same question to students—would their river tales be so fond? Today, many rivers around the world boast unhealthy report cards reflecting poor water quality, threatened species, and loss of essential wetlands and other precious habitat. One could not fault students, then, if they didn’t share such sentiments about the rivers in their communities. If shown how their rivers used to be compared with how they are now, many may even turn to despair.

But what if we could help restore our rivers, while giving children hope and showing them that all is not lost? And what if, by doing so, we could begin to teach students how to become river custodians themselves? The Elizabeth River Project, our river restoration group in Virginia, has done just that, through our innovative floating classroom, “The Learning Barge”. This one-of-a-kind 32-by-120 foot barge traverses the Elizabeth River, offering students a unique opportunity to learn how to help make their river swimmable and fishable by 2020.

Powered by wind and sun and featuring a live wetland, a rain cistern and waterless composting toilets, this ‘classroom of the future’ serves as a demonstration model of green technology, while informing, inspiring and engaging environmental stewards to support river restoration. To date, over 10,000 K-12 students have come aboard, investigating sustainable solutions to the river’s pollution.

Barge Beginnings

While students today have unprecedented access to information, many have never touched the waters of their local river. Rivers can serve as wonderful living laboratories, allowing students the opportunity to explore and discover river ecology, but urban rivers usually offer little access, and often much of the riverfront property is privately owned.

While visiting the Elizabeth River in 2006, Phoebe Crisman, a professor at the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Architecture, became excited by the abundance of teaching moments this busy port river offered. She believed if the public could witness first-hand The Elizabeth River Project’s restoration efforts, they themselves would become lifelong river stewards. As she stood along the shore, she discovered that this maritime harbor is not only home to military vessels and tug boats, but also dozens of working barges carrying goods up and down the river. With a keen eye for transformation, Crisman began to envision a barge equipped with a glass-walled classroom and a functional wetland full of marsh grasses. The barge would dock at various sites around the river, where participants would learn about river ecology, stewardship and clean-up efforts. She shared her idea with us at The Elizabeth River Project, and we immediately saw the potential of this educational tool, so we formed a partnership with the UVA to try to get the project afloat.

Bankrolling the Barge

To say that we faced obstacles implementing this project would be an understatement. Funding a project of this size required a ‘bargeload’ of money, which meant we had to sell the vision to potential financial supporters. Convincing potential donors and the board of The Elizabeth River Project that owning a barge is a good idea was not easy—boats are notorious for high maintenance costs. Luckily, with perseverance, things started to go our way. First, we received thumbs up approval from The Elizabeth River Project’s board, which meant we could begin to raise over a million dollars for construction and $165,000 for annual operating costs. Raising the funds, however, was not easy, and took three years. Seed funding from the Virginia Environmental Endowment, which has remained one of the biggest supporters of the project, was essential in giving the project credibility, and because of their initial gesture, additional donors followed. The Elizabeth River Project, The University of Virginia, local teachers, volunteers and UVA students continued to secure funding and in-kind donations from hundreds of donors, including major support from Dominion Virginia Power and Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foundation. We also received numerous government grants for the project.

Barge Building

Once we had our core funding in place, we drafted a construction budget for the barge, which involved nailing down details of the barge’s design. In doing so, we faced several significant challenges. First, although UVA’s architects are award-winning designers, they did not have a marine architect on staff. Fortunately, a local marine architect and member of The Elizabeth River Project, Eric Matherne of Matherne Marine Design, stepped forward, volunteering thousands of hours to the project. Apart from helping to create a beautiful design, Eric helped to ensure the barge’s upper-deck structures could withstand the corrosive environment of salt water air and that all construction complied with Coast Guard specifications.

Since this project was going to preach the merits of sustainability, we figured it should probably be a sustainable project itself. Incorporating green practices into all aspects of the barge—not just its construction, but also maintenance, programming, marketing and events, was a challenge. The UVA design team kept the river’s health in mind throughout every phase. They used recycled materials, river-friendly products and even reclaimed dead trees for the barge’s wooden features. When making decisions the barge crew always asks, “Is it the best decision for the river and the environment in general?” This has led to some creative solutions. For example, we needed to find a way to keep passengers cool during hot weather, as a steel barge raises the air temperature by about 10ºF. We decided to use recycled sail cloths for shade, and spray bottles to mist passengers.

Through looking to nature for solutions to challenges, Biomimicry has also been useful. For example, students on the barge engage in hands-on activities under the shade of solar panels that mimic trees, and the blades of the wind turbines on the barge were inspired by whale fins.

A Model Program

Unlike any other classroom in the world, The Learning Barge symbolizes the marriage of a working harbor and a living ecosystem. It is Coast Guard certified as an attraction vessel. We developed its curriculum with science as the foundation and nature as the teacher. Through the project, we hope to reach the 500,000 citizens who live in the river’s cities of Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach. So far, we have focused on students from the area’s public and private schools, of which there are over 200. We are very grateful that The Learning Barge’s education program won the national 2011 Environmental Excellence Award from SeaWorld Busch Gardens.

Field Trips to the Barge

The crux of The Learning Barge’s educational experience for students is our field trip program. For 90 minutes, about 60 students rotate through six learning stations on the barge (all visitors come aboard while the barge is docked, not underway). The cost is $7 per student—teachers and chaperones are free. At each learning station, students “see, touch and learn” about the ecosystem of the lower Chesapeake Bay, the effects of environmental contaminants and how individual behavior can restore environmental health.

The barge also teaches green technology that challenges young minds to think of creative ways to use renewable resources such as wind, sun and rain. Five of the learning stations are staffed by a barge educator (three seasonal college students, our education director and the barge captain), while one of the learning stations, the RIVER Art Station, is run by the visiting teachers. Each learning station includes a “What YOU Can Do” stewardship message and learning moment, including “Only rain down the drain,” “Keep our shores green and natural,” “Eliminate or reduce plastics,” “Switch to renewable resources,” and “Scoop the Poop.” Each year, we revise and make changes to the program so that returning students are offered a new experience.

 

The Elizabeth River Project

The urban Elizabeth River is one the most polluted tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the United States which spans six states, including Virginia. The non-profit Elizabeth River Project has been working since 1993 to restore the health of the Elizabeth River. With a staff of ten and many diverse community partners, they lead a community-based watershed action plan to improve the river. Since completing one of the first voluntary wetland restorations in Virginia, The Elizabeth River Project has been a leader in such projects. The Elizabeth River Project has enlisted 128 schools—over half of all schools in the local watershed area—to conduct hands-on projects in which students reduce pollution or create wildlife habitat. Schools are recognized each spring for their achievements as “River Star Schools.” In 2008, the Elizabeth River Project set the bold goal of making the Elizabeth River safe for swimming and fishing by 2020. Since then, the Project has added programs that are strongly focused on engaging the public in hands-on education and restoration. Two of these new programs are River Star Homes and the Learning Barge—the world’s first floating wetland classroom.

 

Barge Learning Stations

  • Fishable River Station – At this barge station, students use habitat traps to discover the abundance of benthic critters on the river’s bottom and along the edge of a marsh. Students pull up crab, minnow and finfish traps, observing their catch to predict the likely level of dissolved oxygen at the docking site. Students see, touch and appreciate the live organisms, then release them unharmed.
  • River Roots Station – The barge’s most prominent feature is its central basin of living wetland plants. Students use microscopes and magnifying glasses to observe how wetland grasses absorb polluted water, anchor sediments and provide habitat. They learn how the wetlands filter rain and river water for use on the barge. Using specimen dishes and pipettes, students draw water samples from the basin to observe algae and worms as food sources for the wetlands, but also as potential problems if out of balance.
  • River Wildlife Station – Students learn that marsh grasses are one component of a healthy shoreline. They use binoculars to identify birds, reptiles and mammals and the habitats that support them. Students compare water quality in an aquarium containing live oysters with one containing no oysters, noting the relative ability of these aquaria to improve water clarity in minutes. They test the turbidity of the river water at the docking site with a secchi disc. Students compare the needs of humans (the “working river”) with the needs of river wildlife (the “living river”).
  • Green Alley Station – Students discover that the barge produces alternative sources of energy and water. Using the barge’s solar and wind power, students deploy a remotely-operated vehicle to observe the aquatic life that inhabits the shoreline. They use handheld anemometers to calculate wind speed and how much fossil-fuel energy is saved by using solar and wind power on the barge. Students predict whether the barge’s rain cistern has collected enough water to meet the vessel’s needs for a month (hand washing, watering plants and cleaning). Students discuss renewable resources for home and school.
  • Swimmable River Station – Students learn that a lack of wetlands contributes to habitat loss and elevated bacteria in water runoff, resulting in conditions unsafe for swimming. They each pull up buckets of river water and test for the presence of bacteria. Using sand bags that simulate the amount of feces an average dog produces every two weeks, students calculate the potential impact on the local watershed if all its 500,000 residents had dogs. While viewing a river map, students learn what a watershed is and how humans can impact the health of the river.
  • RIVER Art Station – While scanning the barge site, students interpret the shoreline and river into geometric shapes, and each student translates her/his findings into a Japanese Zen sand garden. Students use items from nature like rocks, pinecones, shells, sticks and sea glass. They then reflect on the importance of a balanced ecosystem, and how the river has changed over time.

Finally, students commit to protect the river by serving as “River Rangers”, an honorary title that gives students a sense of individual importance and duty to the river.

At the end of the field trip, we collect feedback from students through a “Message in a Bottle” activity. Students write letters sharing their thoughts on the learning barge, and ‘mail’ the letters to the barge crew in recycled bottles. The crew love reading these letters, and it helps us know which parts of the program connect with students, and which ones we can improve upon. Oral student surveys are also implemented at the beginning and end of the program. Teachers complete evaluations scoring the program on a scale from 1-10 (10 being excellent). The barge maintains a 10 average—some teachers have even rated it off the scale!

 

Logistical Challenges

Of course, any project of this size will inevitably face numerous logistical challenges. Like many barges, ours does not have a motor, and relies on tug boats to push her. Luckily, tugging services have been graciously donated to us so far, but using tug boats imposes limitations on viable docking sites. Although the barge has a small draft (the depth that the hull of a ship extends into the water) of about 2 feet, most tugs have a 5 to 6-foot draft, requiring deeper waters. The Learning Barge also requires industrial strength docks for mooring, and a place for safe harbor during foul weather. Developing a storm plan was essential, and ours has already been used dozens of times.

One unforeseen challenge has been obtaining gangways long enough to allow passengers to board the barge from its docking sites. (The Elizabeth River is a working harbor and docks tend to be high to accommodate huge ships, while the barge requires low ones.) As barges are generally used for cargo rather than passengers, obstacles like this are bound to present themselves when implementing such a project.

Creating a one-of-a-kind project can be very exciting, but also puzzling to some. Initially, the Coast Guard scratched its head over the barge’s green systems and how to classify the vessel. Nonetheless, during its construction, The Learning Barge began to live up to its name, becoming a learning platform for many involved in its development, including the Coast Guard, shipyard apprentices, student architects, teachers, and its crew.

When construction was complete, an overwhelming outpouring of generosity from river industries and partners helped us form a Maintenance Advisory Committee in order to look after the vessel. Members meet monthly and represent Virginia Ship Repair, ship building/repair industries, tug boat companies and diving organizations. Their support and commitment to the barge is a true gift to the river.

 

Is a Learning Barge project for you?

We hope that this article will lead some to consider undertaking a similar project in their area, even if on a smaller (or bigger!) scale, and that it has highlighted some of the benefits, and challenges, of such an endeavor. Even if a learning barge isn’t for you, however, the activities we undertake on the barge are applicable or adaptable to many different river settings. The main point of the learning experience is to allow students to experience their river, and to give them a chance to witness its unique qualities and how human choices impact its health. Students leave The Learning Barge knowing that the river’s ecosystem consists of pieces dependent on each other. They discover nature’s innate ability to heal itself, and how to facilitate the river’s recuperative strength. These are all important elements of a river education program which are replicable anywhere.

I hope that this project inspires teachers though to include hands-on river education into their curriculum. At The Learning Barge, we firmly believe that memorable teaching moments through real-life experiences with nature not only give students a better understanding of their outdoor environment, but stand the best chance of guiding students to restore and protect the environment in their own lives.

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Robin Dunbar is Education Director at The Elizabeth River Project in Portsmouth, Virginia. Aside from The Learning Barge, her current education projects include River Star Schools, Wetlands in the Classroom and her personal website at www.baybabies.org.

To learn more about The Learning Barge, visit www.elizabethriver.org or The University of Virginia’s barge site, www.arch.virginia.edu/learningbarge. There are also a number of news clips and videos on construction of the barge available on YouTube (just search for “Learning Barge”). You can also email Robin at rdunbar@elizabethriver.org.