Do Your Part

You and your students are participating in The Mariners' Museum’s program Chesapeake Bay: An Estuary in Crisis. More importantly, we are excited that through participation in this program, your students will become aware of the problems facing the Bay and how they can become life-long stewards of the largest estuary in the United States. So that your students may gain the most from this program, we request that you cover a few key points.

To make things easy to access and fun for your class, we’ve put the information in a variety of formats. You may use the power point to guide your students, or you may download individual PDFs. When you’re done, we hope you encourage your students to take our online quiz.

Do You Live On The Chesapeake Bay?

The Chesapeake Bay is surrounded by ten major cities from two large states, all of which have a major impact on its health. Download our map and then label the cities that are on or near the Chesapeake Bay.

Cities list (PDF):

  • Norfolk, VA
  • Hampton, VA
  • Richmond, VA
  • Fredericksburg, VA
  • Washington, DC
  • Annapolis, MD
  • Baltimore, MD
  • Havre de Grace, MD
  • Chrisfield, MD
  • Salsbury, MD
  • Your own hometown

Rivers That Flow To The Bay:

There are five major rivers that flow into the Chesapeake Bay – each one bringing the potential to upset the delicate balance of the Bay. Label the rivers and then talk about what sort of things might end up in the river and consequently the bay.

Rivers list (PDF):

  • James River
  • York River
  • Rappahannock River
  • Potomac River
  • Susquehanna River

List the states located within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed (PDF)

Your students will also benefit from a better understanding of the following terms:

ESTUARY – A partially enclosed body of water where two different types of water mix, i.e. salty ocean water and fresh water from rivers and streams creating an area of brackish water. The area is influenced by the ocean tides and also freshwater rainfall.
An excellent resource for your students to learn more is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) website.

WATERSHED - An area of land where all water eventually drains into a particular body of water. Everyone lives in a watershed, although watersheds vary in size from areas where water drains into a small stream to watersheds encompassing large areas such as the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.
To learn more about the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, visit www.chesapeakebay.net.

Do you live outside of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed?
Have your students locate their watershed by visiting the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) website.

Discuss with your students what it means to be located within a watershed (i.e. because they are within a watershed their actions affect a specific, possibly far away, body of water such as the Chesapeake Bay).

Finally, we have provided a link to the 2007 State of the Bay Report (PDF) published by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (www.cbf.org). This report puts the Chesapeake Bay’s health in terms of letter grades (A+ to F) and provides detailed information on the condition of the Chesapeake Bay. As you are discussing the condition of the Bay, you may wish to share this report with your students either through handouts or through PowerPoint. To assist you in this discussion, we have included the 2007 State of the Bay Report – Explanation Sheet (PDF) and Changes in the Health of the Bay over Time (PDF).

As a review of the information, your students will also enjoy our Chesapeake Bay Word Search (PDF). When you are ready to begin a clean-up of your own, you may find the Data Sheet for Waterway Cleanup (PDF) and the information on Recyclable/Non-recyclable Items (PDF) helpful. Remember, the Chesapeake Bay watershed covers a large region of the east coast, so you don’t have to go to the Bay to help keep it clean. Cleaning up your local park, stream, or school yard helps to make the Bay healthy. And if you live outside of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, your watershed will appreciate the effort as well.