The Chesapeake Bay, North America’s largest estuary system, is a case study in the connections between science and civic engagement, the power of science to provide key insights into challenging issues, and the limitations of science to effect change in contested civic spheres.  Through engagement with diverse entities students will develop new insights pertaining to environmental challenges, enhance their communication skills, and pose solutions to real-world problems.  This experience will engage students in the intersections of science, human behavior, and economics and public policy.  The student’s task is to develop an appreciation of each of these components and an understanding of how they relate to one another – in their connections, their overlap, their divergence.  The civic issues of the Chesapeake Bay watershed will be explored through first-hand field experiences and interactions with watermen, farmers, industrialists, local officials, recreational users and tourists, and state- and regional-level leaders.  The students will use the lessons learned here as models for understanding how to think critically, evaluate, and formulate solutions to contentious public issues in their local communities in the future.  These attributes will serve them in their future roles as citizens involved in an increasingly complex and dynamic democracy.

Stewardship of public waterways: Immersion in the Chesapeake Bay environment

255th National Meeting (2018)

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