Fifteen students from Shoreham-Wading River High School spent a day collecting data from the waterways of Indian Island County Park in Riverhead – their designated site for the Day in the Life of the Peconic Estuary program.

Along with science research teacher Mrs. Dana Schaefer, the young scientists – seniors Ava Merced and Steven Opiela; juniors Michael DeVita and James Melanson; sophomores Natalie Casey, Aaron Greenberg and Reagan Peperno and freshmen Derek Blanco, Matthew Cerniglia, Nikolaos Chantis, Aidan Fehrenbach, James Minetti, Lucas Portuese, Shannon Redlein and Alex Zhang – used procedures and methodologies learned in Science Research class to investigate the variety of species they located and will work to analyze the data in the coming weeks.

The Day in the Life program is a citizen science project organized by Brookhaven National Laboratory, the Central Pine Barrens Commission and the Peconic Estuary Program. Additionally, it includes experts from the Suffolk County Water Authority and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, as well as science educators from across the East End of Long Island.

Traditionally, each participating school or group would be stationed at a site along the Peconic Estuary, somewhere from the head of the Peconic River all the way out to Greenport, collecting scientific data that helps to evaluate water quality and the health of the organisms in that ecosystem. This year, due to COVID-19 restrictions, Shoreham-Wading River High School was one of only two schools collecting data in a socially distant manner for the program.

According to Mrs. Schaefer, the students’ participation in this annual educational adventure is one of their first experiences in collecting scientific data, which will be analyzed and evaluated through the course curriculum and presented later in the year at the district’s annual STEAM Symposium.