IB Students Test Local Water Quality with the Bronx River Alliance

November 28, 2023

Juniors and seniors in the IB Programme taking Environmental Systems and Societies (ESS) recently visited Starlight Park in the South Bronx to learn about how the environment is sustained and cared for. The trip was held in collaboration with the Bronx River Alliance, a community-led environmental learning organization dedicated to protecting, improving, and restoring the Bronx River corridor. 

While at Starlight Park, students took part in several activities to better understand the many ways the local community cares for the public space. The visit began with a brief tour, during which students were taught about the differences between gray (made by humans) versus green (natural systems) environmental infrastructure, and were tasked with identifying where these respective structures appeared throughout the park. Afterwards, students were led closer to the river, where they tested the quality of the water in the Bronx River. Throughout the lab, students relied on procedures they’d used in class to record their baseline observations, and used tools including specialized thermometers, refractive monitors, and sondes.

With the ESS’ core concerns of dissecting the structures and functions of various environmental systems, and of exploring the cultural, ethical, political, and economic interactions people and societies have with the environments they inhabit, this field trip provided a local and real-world application of what students have been learning in class throughout the year.

To learn more about the International Baccalaureate (IB) at Léman, click here.