Fredericksburg Parent

16 Fredericksburg Parent and Family • November 2020 Ask the Expert a sk t h e e x p e rt Q: How are Fredericksburg Academy students involved in tracking water quality in our region? David Steinberger, Upper and Middle School Science Teacher: It's important to us that our students under- stand that science isn't just a fixed set of facts that you memorize and spit out on a test. Science is a process, a way of using precise and proven methods to investigate and understand the world around us. Friends of the Rappahannock (FOR) approached me four years ago with a need for more data on the local watershed. Good data can help groups like FOR and the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay advocate for funding and policy needed to protect the Bay. I became certified to collect this data, and I train students each year to do it. For the past three years, my stu- dents in the Middle and Upper schools have collected monthly samples and data for Deep Run, a creek that runs through the FA campus and flows to the Rappahannock. INTERVIEWED BY EMILY FREEHLING This project exemplifies the school's constant quest to help students connect their learning to the larger world around them. Partnership Gives Students a Role in Protecting the Bay Learning isn't a one-way transfer of knowledge from teacher to student. It's an experience that changes the way a student understands the world. Fredericksburg Academy has provided a cur- riculum based on this comprehensive, multi-disciplinary approach to learning for students from preschool through 12 th grade since 1992. Even as the school works through the safety protocols necessary to hold in-person classes five days a week amid the Covid-19 pandemic, FA continues to forge partnerships with the larger community that make hands-on learning opportunities possible for students. This year, Environmental Science students will expand water quality monitoring work the school has done for years in a partnership with Virginia Tech and Friends of the Rappahannock that will ultimately help state and regional groups advocate for a healthier Chesapeake Bay. As November's Expert, the Fredericksburg Academy team talk about how this project exemplifies the school's constant quest to help students connect their learning to the larger world around them.

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