Lego Children's Fund Awards $3,997 Grant

April 07, 2009

Washington, DC:  The River School announced that it has received a $3,997 grant from The LEGO Children’s Fund.  The generous grant will support the school’s science curriculum. The “River Lab on the Potomac” will introduce students in grades Kindergarten through third grade to the Chesapeake Bay watershed, which covers 64,000 square miles and drains from six states and the District of Columbia.

The River School targets young children who have hearing loss. Children with hearing loss experience a language gap and require multi-level exposure to concepts and language so that they may catch up and close this gap with their hearing peers. In most instances, they have not had the experience of hearing the words “flower”, “plants”, “soil”, “dirt”, “worm” etc. for all of their young lives. Rather, sound and speech are new to them which means that they need to not only hear the words but also experience them so that they can associate the words with the objects and learn how words, which make up language, are interrelated.

River School students will become water quality monitors and will set up a lab to obtain data about their local creek.  They will also learn about the geology of a stream and the density of different rocks and their classification and will discuss the stream’s ecosystem and the natural balance that can be disrupted by pollution. River School students will use meterologic instruments to study how weather affects the hydrologic cycle and the necessity of water conservation. Results will keep our students and their families aware of how their individual activities may impact their local water quality and how they can help communities make decisions based on good data and information.