Down by the River: The Alfond Center Dock as a Platform for Learning

Since its opening in the fall of 2023, the dock at the Bill '67 and Peter '71 Alfond Coastal Research Center has offered extraordinary access to the Parker River and Great Marsh ecosystem for Govs students and faculty as well as external research partners. Here's a glimpse of how Govs students spent time on the dock, forging real-world connections through their learning.

Cardboard Boat Regatta: Spring 2025

This annual event took on a new level of competition and fun when it was moved from an inflatable pool outside the Schumann Math-Science building to the Parker River this year. 

Physics students were challenged to design a boat solely out of cardboard and tape, and then test each boat to determine if it could bear the weight of a student as they paddled the length of the dock. The exercise tested their knowledge of buoyancy, forces, and float.

Water Quality Testing: Fall 2024 - Spring 2025

Chemistry students conducted water quality testing throughout the school year. Last fall, students learned about the Water Quality Index, or WQI, which consists of nine tests to determine water quality, including: temperature, pH, turbidity, total solids (measured by electrical conductivity), dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, phosphates, nitrates, and fecal coliform. Students performed five of these tests per dock visit using the Vernier scale, a methodology for making precise measurements. At the end of the school year, they were challenged to use data from both dock visits and publicly available data, combined with chemistry content knowledge, to explain their results and what their data reveal about the health of the Parker River. 

Boat Building Visiting Professional Seminar Series: Winter 2024

Under the direction of Lowell’s Boat Shop, the oldest boat-building shop in America, students learned to build a 20-foot wooden surf dory using mostly hand tools. Over the course of eight weeks, they learned engineering and sculpting skills and also discussed the history of dory boats in the region. The finished dory became part of the Academy’s “fleet” of vessels and was launched on the Parker River by multiple student groups, including the Life Fitness afternoon program.

Many other groups have used the Alfond Center’s dock over the last two years, including: 

• Honors Environmental Science classes participated in a microplastics water column sampling project and learned about the impacts of microplastics on the Great Marsh ecosystem.
• The Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole positioned a YSI device, a water quality measurement instrument, on the dock, which continuously takes high-quality water samples from the Parker River.
• The New England Coastal History & Ecology class, a new interdisciplinary ninth-grade course, held ecological and geological lessons on the river landscape from the dock and learned about early land-use practices along the Parker River.