Tags: field trip

On Thursday, June 9th, a group from Lifestyles for the Disabled visited Freshkills Park to learn about the history of Freshkills as it continues to evolve from a landfill to a verdant grassland habitat – the largest park developed in New York City in more than a century. 

Students across New York City are visiting Freshkills Park to collect data on invasive species and take action to protect this reclaimed ecosystem.

There is a newcomer to the grasslands and wetlands in Freshkills Park: spotted lanternflies, an invasive species that can wreak havoc on trees and other plants.

At Freshkills Park, like parks around the world, we cancelled our in-person programming to protect public safety in Spring 2020. We immediately looked for other, virtual ways to share Freshkills Park’s message of ecological restoration and support students and teachers in navigating the confusing new world of distance learning.

We are now scheduling field trips to Freshkills Park for April and May! These trips are designed to help middle and high school students connect to Freshkills Park through guided walks and interactive activities.

Educators can choose from one of two themed field trips:

Wetland Ecology

• This trip provides an introduction to how creek-side ecosystems have transformed alongside the landfill to park project.

Written by Jessa Orluk, Freshkills Park Programming Associate. 

One Wednesday morning this past October, I led a group of ten students down a path next to Freshkills Park’s Main Creek. I talked as we meandered. The walk was meant to orient students to the park’s ecosystem before we returned to the kayak launch.

Written by Jessa Orluk, Freshkills Park Programming Associate.

One hot day this past October, a student told me, “Well, our waste has to go somewhere. It’s selfish, but we don’t want it here. It’s not our problem.”

He was one of 16 high school students on a field trip to Freshkills Park.

After learning about Freshkills Park through tours and presentations, Saint Adalbert teacher Donna Dawson assigned a final project for her 8th graders to create an interpretive model of the park’s future, encouraging the use of recyclable materials. The students assumed the role of urban park planners, conducted research, constructed practical visions of the park, and wrote accompanying reports.

Once an abandoned area, Brooklyn Bridge Park slowly transitioned into a model destination for environmental science, green design and public recreation. In September 2015, Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy opened the Environmental Education Center located at 99 Plymouth Street.  The Center features interactive programming related to the park’s historic identity, sustainable construction and ecological implications with noteworthy highlights such as the touch tank and the structural model of the Brooklyn Bridge Park.

On February 9th, students at James Madison High School built a chain of plastic bags around the school building in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. The project was meant to raise awareness about excessive use of the material and its harmful impact on the environment.

Freshkills Park staff provides free programs to schools across New York City that allow 3rd-12th grade students to expand their knowledge on the living evolution of Freshkills from a landfill to a park. These learning opportunities,  including ecological implications, community outreach, design and the arts, are not only available in a classroom setting, but in an outdoor environment as well.

“I see green as far as I can see,” a third grader said as he stood on top of North Mound. One of the 495 students who visited Freshkills Park this fall, this child readily grasped the mission of the park: to turn what once was the world’s largest landfill into one of the largest green areas in New York City.

During a clear and comfortable late July morning, the staff of Freshkills Park was given a behind-the-scenes tour of one of Manhattan’s most popular destinations: The High Line. With Vice President of Park Operations Martin Nembhard and Director of Horticulture Tom Smarr as our guides, we were treated with a glimpse into their new office building as well as a detailed accounting of their landscape design and management strategies.

The Freshkills Park Team endeavors to keep up with innovative programming and research on NYC Waterways and recently took a ferry to Governor’s Island to visit the Harbor School, home of the Billion Oyster Project. The Harbor School provides a truly unique maritime program for high school students with a curriculum built around restoring one billion oysters to New York Harbor. 

For the sixth grade students at Marsh Avenue Expeditionary Learning School (MAELS), their visit to Freshkills Park was not an ordinary field trip. Like any group of students on a Freshkills Park walking tour, they played the role of park planners as they designed structures to keep stray soccer balls out of the landfill gas well heads, worked together to decipher the correct order for a series of maps about the park’s history, and participated in stakeholder role-playing exercise where they debated priorities for the future park.