First Lady Katie O'Malley Participates in Water Quality Study with Students

Promotes Maryland's Children in Nature Initiative with the Living Classrooms Foundation; Kicks Off Chesapeake Bay Game

 

ANNAPOLIS, MD (August 3, 2009) –First Lady Katie O’Malley today participated in a water quality study with approximately 20 students participating in an educational program hosted by the Living Classrooms Foundation. First Lady O’Malley today also unveiled this year’s Chesapeake Bay Game, a children’s activity book designed to transform kids’ restless energy during summer travel into a fun, creative, educational experience. 

First Lady O’Malley joined students from Anne Arundel Middle and Elementary schools in studying plankton, performing water quality tests, examining marine life, dredging for oysters and discussing the oyster’s ecological role in the bay while trawling through the Baltimore Inner Harbor.  The students also learned about the Port of Baltimore, marine life, and the history of boats in the Bay.

“It’s a joy to be out here today and to have the opportunity to enjoy the treasures of the water and Maryland’s natural life,” said First Lady Katie O’Malley. “Programs like the Living Classrooms Foundation are instrumental to ensuring that all Maryland children have opportunities to connect with nature at an early age and throughout their childhood.  Educational opportunities like these help to ensure that children from all walks of life are inspired by nature, and grow to become informed and responsible stewards of our environment.”

The First Lady’s marine excursion with the students is part of an ongoing effort to promote the Maryland’s Partnership for Children in Nature Initiative. The program today is being hosted by the Living Classrooms Foundation. The foundation provides a variety of educational programs that support schools’ efforts to boost student achievement and youth development by motivating students to become engaged with learning. The Living Classrooms Foundation implements a hands-on, experience-based approach to education that emphasizes learning by doing and is designed to reinforce important academic and life skills through real-world experiences.

“Under the leadership of Governor O’Malley – and with the dedicated support of our First Lady, Judge Katie O’Malley –-Maryland’s Partnership for Children in Nature is working to ensure every Maryland child has an opportunity to connect with and learn about his or her natural world,” said Maryland Department of Natural Resources Secretary John Griffin.  “The Living Classrooms Foundation programming is an exceptional model for the type of hands on environmental learning that will help us achieve our goal.”

“Living Classrooms Foundation's education and environmental programs use exciting hands-on learning experiences to connect youth to their natural environment, fostering a sustained sense of stewardship, which they take back to their schools and communities,” said James Piper Bond, President and CEO of the Living Classrooms Foundation.

The O’Malley Brown Administration has taken a keen interest in providing tools to ensure that Maryland’s youth are given the opportunity to experience first-hand the beauty and importance of the outdoor-world. In April 2008 Governor O’Malley established the Maryland Partnership for Children in Nature by Executive Order, as part of an effort to develop and implement a plan to provide youth with structured and unstructured opportunities for play, outdoor recreation, learning and scientific study and an environmental literacy plan. The Chesapeake Bay Games Series is a part of the comprehensive plan to make learning about the environment and the natural world a more engaging experience for Maryland’s youth.

To help foster the student’s interest in Maryland’s Natural Resources, to ensure all Maryland young people have the opportunity to connect with their natural world and grow to become informed and responsible stewards, Governor Martin O’Malley established the Maryland Partnership for Children in Nature in 2008. Under the initiative, which is now being used as a national model, the Governor created the Maryland Civic Justice Corps, a summer job and environmental education program that employs at risk youth in Maryland State Parks, and recently issued the Maryland Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights. A plan to implement the Partnership’s Report and Recommendations – presented to Governor O’Malley in April -- is under development. During the 2009 legislative session, the O’Malley-Brown Administration secured record funding for Maryland’s #1 ranked public schools for the third consecutive year, with an investment of more than $5.5 billion.

---

Additional Press Releases