Rogers, Garrett receive river stewardship award

July 1, 2005

From the Westborough News

Stephanie Garrett and Chris Rogers, sixth-grade teachers at the Mill Pond School, were honored with a 2005 River Stewardship Award for their innovative, place-based curriculum with the Assabet River as their teaching tool.

Through weekly field trips to the river, which runs behind the school, students learned math by taking water quality measurements and English skills by doing reflective writing in the style of Thoreau. The teachers participated in the Walden Woods Project, “Finding Walden” seminar, and as a result, shifted their curriculum to connect children to their landscape.

The Annual River Stewardship Awards are presented to individuals and organizations whose outstanding contributions protect the natural and scenic environments of the Assabet, Concord and Sudbury Rivers. Twenty-nine miles of these rivers are federally designated as wild and scenic because of their “outstandingly remarkable resources.”

The League of Women Voters of Acton, Billerica, Concord, Carlisle, Wayland and Sudbury, in partnership with the River Stewardship Council, sponsor the 2005 River Stewardship Awards to recognize outstanding commitment, innovative thinking and extra effort in preserving the rivers. The reception and awards ceremony were held at the Buttrick Mansion Garden in the Minute Man National Historic Park prior to a weekend of festivities held on the rivers.