Featured school program

The Island Alliance directs the Boston Harbor Islands Curriculum Project, a collaborative program for middle and high school students in the Greater Boston Area, in partnership with the Center for Collaborative Education. Under the CCE's leadership, a growing number of schools, from Salem to Boston, are using innovative Boston Harbor Islands materials which tie into the required curriculum. In addition, the Shaw, Curley, and the Harbor Pilot School of the Boston Public Schools are now involved in a program called Time and Place: Harbor Connections. Capt. David Weinstein is working with these middle schools on an experiential program which takes the students to George's, Gallop's and Thompson Islands. He is assisting 6^th and 7^th grade teachers in developing the interdisciplinary, inquiry-based curriculum, aligned to state and local curriculum standards. Harbor Connections lessons have been developed that provide classroom preparation for the field trips, on board and island activities, and follow-up and evaluation.

Sample lessons from the CCE and Harbor Connections programs are on the Island Alliance website. After two years, these two programs have 1500 students already involved, and they promise to expand, with the evolving curriculum to be shared on the website.

This drawing is by Asia Stanley of The Harbor School, a pilot Middle School of the Boston Public Schools taking part in the Curriculum Project funded by the Island Alliance. It is part of a 12-card collection created by sixth and seventh grade students, and sold by this expeditionary learning center to support Boston Harbor educational activities. On the back side is text on Long Island by Tamia Reid Sturgis, which reads as follows: "Long Island is located in the Quincy Bay of the Boston Harbor. At the head of Long Island is a lighthouse and the crumbling bunkers of Fort Strong. Fort Strong was used as a military staging area. Archeologists recently found a 9,000 year old spear point on Long Island. Long Island is 213 acres in size. Currently, Long Island houses a shelter for the homeless and other city (of Boston) services."