STANDARD PRESS RELEASE
Contact Information:
Hoboken Public School District
Christopher Munoz
201-356-3738/201-978-2164
[email protected]
The Riverkeeper Institute has begun at Hoboken Middle School
The Riverkeeper Institute at Hoboken Middle School offers specialized educational experiences that provide opportunities beyond the walls of the classrooms.
Hoboken, NJ, — The Riverkeeper Institute at Hoboken Middle School is underway.
Prior to the COVID Pandemic, Hoboken Middle School students and staff engaged in a project with two Stevens Institute of Technology classes to design a wetlab. Months of planning and collaboration led to the construction of the lab. Just as the lab was completed and introduced
to the school community, COVID pivoted schools to a remote learning model. The Hoboken
Public School District is pleased to reintroduce Hoboken Middle School’s wetlab and to launch
the Riverkeeper Institute.
The Riverkeeper Institute at Hoboken Middle School is an immersive, year-long program designed to provide students with field experience, professional data collection and reporting, project based inquiry, and hands-on scientific discovery related to Hoboken and the greater Hudson
River ecosystem. It offers specialized educational experiences that provide opportunities to explore in depth, place-based topics that bring the world outside of the classroom to students.
Hoboken Middle School riverkeepers are student explorers, scientists, researchers, environmentalists, fishermen, ecologists, biologists, and aquatic heroes of today, and tomorrow. Hoboken Middle School recently called out for students to apply to the institute based on interest. The goal of the application process was to find a class of student
riverkeepers willing to pilot innovative curriculum, participate in field experiences, and engage in original research that fosters environmental exploration, observation of aquatic life, and marine stewardship. Mission accomplished!
Congratulations to the following Hoboken Middle School students (Grades 6-8) selected to participate in the first cohort of the Riverkeeper Institute:
Hoboken Middle School Students
Adela Horn
Rafael Callamari
Albian Jashari
Adam Khol
Michael Keegan
Isabella Rosado
Alex Dellara
Rye Critelli
Zachary Bellofatto
Cameron Daly
Charles Stropp
Magnus Peterka
Saral Kulkarni
Riley Peters
Seneca Perry
Ehmani Chin
Emani Cirino
Charlotte Peters
Harrison Green
Hoboken High School Environmental Science Club
Ian Crespi
Abigail Scott
Amalia Batlle
Camila Suarez
Nate Lerner
Lavinia Cintra
Meghan Stehli
Jacob Linder
This first cohort of riverkeepers will be proactive in the
community. Led by Hoboken High School science teacher Mr.
Jean Lebegue and a core group of environmental club members, along with Middle School Science teacher Ms. Toni Marinello, students will work to preserve and protect local Hudson River habitats through the application of the scientific process and data collection model, seek to learn more about the relationship between climate change and this estuary, and engage in the impact of microplastics on the river and its shoreline.
Two days per week will be dedicated to research, observation and analysis in the specially
designed living laboratory, equipped with temperature controlled touch and observation tanks
donated by the Hoboken Public Education Foundation, probes, digital microscopes, and other
technologies needed to support their work. Each Friday, Hoboken Middle School riverkeepers
will be in the field fishing, netting, seining, and gathering marine life specimens from the
Hudson River. Trips to the Riverproject Pier 40 Wetlab, the NJ Wetland Discovery, Hoboken
Sewerage Authority, and the Hudson Valley Exploration Pathway are already on the calendar.
And, activities including sailing, fishing, kayaking, and paddleboarding will round out all that
the Hudson River has to offer residents.
Throughout the yearlong Riverkeeper Institute, students
will be assigned topics of interest to study. Students will
be responsible for collecting data and information
related to their topic of interest, making hypotheses,
conducting experiments, and presenting findings at a
culminating workshop involving peers, family members,
university scholars, Hudson River scientists, and local
community leaders and elected officials.
The Hoboken Public School District looks forward to forming partnerships with local organizations, research facilities, and universities as it takes the Riverkeeper Institute from a
pilot program to an established best-practice model.