Knowledge flows from Mahoning River

By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- For centuries, the Mahoning River has silently served the people who have lived along its banks.
For American Indians, it was a giver of sustenance and a watery pathway that led, eventually, to the sea. For modern people, the Mahoning both cooled the Valley's mighty steel mills and served as vessel for their poisons.
Today the river's role is that of teacher.
The Mahoning River Education Project is a growing, Youngstown State University-led effort to use the waterway to help instruct area middle school and high school pupils about the vital link between people and the environment.
Starting in 2001 with the participation of about 600 pupils from Girard High School and Struthers Middle School, the effort has grown to include seven area school districts and more than 5,000 pupils.
Lessons
Participants study not only the Mahoning, but its tributaries and the landscape that surrounds them. They learn about the fish, plants and animals connected with waterways. Pupils also are taught about how human activities -- such as development, industry and farming -- impact the environment and, sometimes, pollute it. They learn, too, about conservation.
Lessons might include gathering samples of stream water, touring a water treatment plant or viewing wildlife that live on or near the water.
As an instructional aid, a video has been produced that discusses the river and its history,
"The whole thrust of this is to raise up a new generation who understands the place where they live," said Holly Burnett, the Mahoning River Education Project's coordinator.
The effort, overseen by YSU's Center for Urban and Regional Studies, is funded through a combination of government grants and donations.
How program works
Middle schools that take part engage in a two-week program that involves all the pupils.
High schools that undertake the program do so through a two-week course.
Learners progress from knowing nothing or little about the river and the environment adjoining it, to writing riverine poetry, creating picture books or polling their parents regarding their attitudes about the waterway.
Workshops assist educators by instructing them how to teach the course.
Chemists, engineers and environmental educators are provided to guide school field trips.
A Web site -- best located by doing an Internet search for "Mahoning River Watershed" -- offers several resources, including maps, research reports and profiles of river communities.
Seeing beyond the bridges
Burnett said she's convinced that the educational campaign is making a difference.
She noted that she has actually encountered children who don't know the river exists, though they may regularly cross a bridge that spans the waterway.
"They never connected it with the river," Burnett said. "They didn't realize what was under that bridge."
Through the Mahoning River Education Project, youngsters are starting to see beyond the bridges and realize there is a living entity flowing beneath them that's worth preserving.