The Gunston School

The Gunston School operates the Chesapeake Watershed Semester (CWS) for Gunston and non-Gunston students. CWS is a semester-long, place-based academic program for 11th and 12th-grade students investigating the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed. Within the 15-week program, 13 students spend nearly 1/3 of their time in the field, including a week at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and a multi-day stay on the ecologically fragile and climate-vulnerable Smith Island. 

This project will allow students to take part in a multi-state effort to restore SAV beds in Chesapeake Bay. In doing so, students will collaborate on research methods and experience ecological restoration firsthand.

Additionally, this project will support Gunston’s efforts to offer real world research opportunities and climate education. Students will share research with environmental workers, government officials and the broader community and report their work. Students also serve as leaders of the local Youth Environmental Action Summit and will share the project and their findings at the event.

CWS and its parent institution, The Gunston School, seek to establish a Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV) restoration on-site at the school’s 35-acre waterfront campus in Centreville, Maryland. The grant will provide field sampling equipment including salinity probes, Secchi discs, turbidity sensors, sediment sorting equipment, and additional reagents for our Lamotte Colorimeter to allow students to participate in site assessment and data collection for this project.