Page 148 - 1990 Wardlaw Hartridge

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By PATRICIA C. TURNER
Most of the 32 sixtb-graders at the Wardlaw-Hartridge School agree the whale watch was the best part of their three-<lay trip to New Eiigland.
tbe tidal marches which border the sea. In English, they read a journal kept ^ a 1 ^ century sailor aboard a
New Ejigland whaling vessel.
Ask them how they prepared for
AccM^lne to Curlna Tbelen of Pi-
They reached that decision even the trip.
Tony DeFoe of Metucben Is quick with his answer: "We studied whales in science and tidal marches and wet­ lands."
David Tisch of Edison added “We know about New Jersey wetlands and tidal marches, especially the impact of people on the New Jersey wetlands."
Plainfield The Oct 10-12 trip to New Studies, "skates, crabs, sand sharks and England was designed to supplement a lot of garbage."
stuoies in several areas. Colette DeSantis of South Plain-
Joan Jarrett of Middlesex, lower field talked about "the wind and the school science teacher, said she and waves around Race Point" oti the after­ Nancy Kenney of Warren, assistant noon whale watch trip. Frank Miles of bead of the lower school and English Plainfield added “We^saw a lot of teacher, devised the idea last spring. Minke whales, but boy was It rough.
Jarrett said they approached the Most of the people got sick.”
then fifth-^ade parents first to find out Krlsta-Anna Wba of Scotch Plains whether ihey lued the idea of their described "the cold front that came children beading out on an overnight through,” showing off what she remeiji- iiip bers of the weather studies they’ve
Then they talked to the students done in science class.
themselves and to organizations and re­ Amit Seth of Edison talked about sorts in New England which can ac­ the mile-long rock jetty they climbed commodate groups of students at a 00 and ran on "all across the bay” look­ cheaper rate oiff-season ing for crabs and watching the fisher­
The end result was 32 students, men.
Kenney and her husband, Jarrett and Tinwlhy Kolaya of Plainfield had her husband and lower school cnathe- already "adopted” a whale through the matKS teacher Rodolfo Ford. Center for Coastal Studies, and now the
They visited the Pilgrim Monu­ two sixth-grade classes plan to do the ment in Provincetown at the end of same thing. They will receive pictures Cape Cod, the Cape Cod National Sea­ of their whale, they said, and a newslet­ shore, and Mystic Seaport and went ter about whales, porpoises and dol- whale watching off the Cape, returning
Thursday evening
The trip itself only constitutes the center section of an educational pro­ cess, Jarrett said.
For before they set out for New England, the students in Jarrett’s sci­ ence classes completed extensive study of cetaceans (aouatic mammals incluo-
though many of them became seasick during the four-hour whale watch, which crew members later admitted was the roughest they ever ran largely due to high seas and strong winds
However, the students said that rough water is good for whale watches because whales surface more often when the seas are turbulent
Chris Albert of Watchung jumped into a description of what they saw on sixth-grade sections at the school, the beach at Cape Cod, instructed by which has camnuses in Edison and naturalists from the Center for Coastal
The 32 students comprise the two
THE STAR-LEDGER, Thund^y, Nevtmbtr % Ittf
THAR SHE BLOWS!
W ardlaw-Hartridge trip-takers getwhale of an edi
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