J. Catherine Roberts

Roberts' "Chesapeake Challenge Environmental Restoration" is a project in which seventh-grade students work with scientists from state agencies, universities, and local grass-roots environmental groups to restore oysters, shad, and submerged aquatic vegetation in Chesapeake Bay. The project reinforces experimental design, data collection, and analysis and helps students make connections between organisms and their environments and the impact human activity has on both. As they organize their data and report their findings, the students also hone their skills in technology, mathematics, and communication as they build on their scientific knowledge.