PS 676 Field Trip - Oyster Reefs

Second graders from PS 676 Red Hook Neighborhood School visited Beam Center on Governors Island last week. As part of their ongoing in-class project involving reef structures, students are collaborating with our Project Designer, Serena, to learn about oysters and their reefs in the waters of NYC. Through a combination of in-class work and visits to Beam Center sites on Governors Island and Red Hook, students are creating reef structures to provide a surface on which oysters can grow and reproduce when they are reintroduced into the water. Serena’s work with second graders is part of a larger partnership between PS 676 and the Billion Oyster Project.

Last week’s field trip to Governors Island was an opportunity for students to see examples of reef structures already in place around Governors Island. The class was able to pull the structures from the water and examine oysters and other creatures that had been living on them. Throughout the visit, students got to learn from researchers with the Billion Oyster Project and handled living oysters.

Afterwards, the youth were given a tour of Beam Center’s workshop on Governors Island and saw the kiln in which their ceramic reef structures will be fired. Students will take another field trip in early December when they visit our space in Red Hook to finish the metalworking aspects of the project. Once complete, the class will return to Governors Island to celebrate their work by putting their new oyster reefs in the water and supporting the Billion Oyster Project’s efforts to restore reefs and support our aquatic ecosystem.