Group for the East End Celebrates Four Decades of Environmental Education on the East End
(Eastern Long Island, New York… June 2024) Each year, Group for the East End [thegroup.org] educates approximately 3,500 students, pre-k to 8th grade, through 190 lessons in schools across the East End of Long Island. Led by Group director of environmental education Steve Biasetti and assistant director of environmental education Anita Wright, classroom and outdoor lessons inspire children to become future stewards of the environment. As the 2023-2024 school year comes to an end, the Group is celebrating four decades of environmental education.
The Group’s education programming began in the mid-1980s with staff sharing responsibilities in coordinating and teaching school classroom lessons and community nature walks. In the early 1990s, the Group increased its commitment to environmental education by offering summer programs, hiring an education consultant, and appointing its first director of environmental education, Vikki Hilles.
“With Vikki’s energy and the addition of environmental educator Anita Wright in 1998, the Group’s educational activities grew significantly through the 1990s and into the 2000s,” shares Biasetti, who began working full-time for the Group in February 1989 as an environmental analyst. “This included classroom lessons and field trips, annual summer field ecology sessions, year-round nature explorations, school and community planting projects, and more. My own role transitioned from advocacy to education in 2005.”
Outdoors, students explore forests and estuaries, participate in beach cleanups, and plant beachgrass to prevent erosion on ocean dunes. They are encouraged to embrace nature, whether it’s the thrilling sight of an osprey catching a fish or watching fiddler crabs scurry across the sand. Engaging classroom lessons complement each school’s curriculum, and cover a number of topics including Long Island’s geological history, groundwater, ecology, wildlife migration, taxonomy, and animal adaptations. Working with science teachers, Group educators help turn students into budding environmentalists.
While the scope of lessons has changed over the last four decades, the goals have remained the same: cultivate an interest and wonder in our natural surroundings; provide a foundation for appreciating our local natural resources; and instill a sense of responsibility for living in harmony with the environment.
“The East End’s richness in diverse natural beauty is really a gift for environmental educators and students,” shares Wright. “I feel so fortunate to have been able to bring students to some of the most beautiful and incredibly fascinating natural places. I am still able to do this, thanks to the work of the Group and other organizations that have collaborated with us to preserve and protect what makes being outdoors on the East End so special. Former students, now in their 20s and 30s come up to me and say, ‘I remember those cool field trips we went on with you in middle school!’ It’s always so great to hear!”
Over the past ten years, the education team has taught an average of 190 classes and 3,500 students per year.
GROUP FOR THE EAST END’S LONGEST CONTINUING PROGRAMS
East Quogue Elementary 6th grade – since 2014
Sag Harbor Elementary 1st grade – since 2009
Sag Harbor Elementary 2nd grade – since 2006
Amagansett Elementary 6th grade – since 2005
Sag Harbor Elementary 5th grade – since 2002
Southampton Intermediate 5th grade – since 2001
Southampton Elementary Kindergarten – since 2001
Montauk Elementary 5th grade – since 2000
East Hampton Middle 6th grade – since 1998
John Marshall Elementary 5th grade – since 1997
Springs School 5th grade – since 1992
