TOP: Jockey's Ridge State Park was opened in 

 1975 as development began encroaching around 

 Nags Head. BOTTOM: Sea-View workshop 

 participants dig into the sand dunes to find the 

 ground water at Jockey's Ridge. 



doing a great service to North Carolina by putting 

 material in layman's language so high school 

 students can understand it" 



When educating students and teachers 

 about coastal processes, Riggs is passionate and 

 energetic. For almost four hours straight, he leads 

 students and teachers over Jockey's Ridge and 

 through Nags Head Woods. The only time he 

 stops is to pick up a piece of charcoal or sand or 

 show a map of aerial photos of development 

 around Nags Head from 1932 to today. 



"These photos are like watching a person 



grow up," he says. "The 

 1932 photo shows when 

 the first road was built and 

 the dune at Jockey's Ridge 

 was very large and 

 expanded over a large 

 area." 



By the 1960s, there 

 was some development 

 around Nags Head. 



Ten years later, 

 contractors began building 

 houses on top of dune 

 fields, including portions of Jockey's Ridge and 

 Seven Sisters dune fields, eventually eliminating 

 the Seven Sisters dune field, according to Riggs. 



"The water lines blew out, and septic 

 systems filled with sand," adds Riggs. "Every 

 house had to be bulldozed. Today's aerial photos 

 show very little undeveloped land area." 



Maritime Forest 



At Nags Head Woods Ecological Preserve, 

 Riggs leads the teachers and students, who are 

 loaded down with backpacks and water bottles, 

 deep into the diverse maritime forest, managed 

 by the Nature Conservancy. 



When the group gets to the edge of the 

 forest, they trek through a vast marsh to a 

 severely eroding estuarine shoreline. 



"Much of the marsh doesn't exist 

 anymore," says Riggs. "The shoreline erosion is 

 a product of rising sea level. The loss of wetlands 

 and uplands in coastal North Carolina is between 

 1,000 and 2,000 acres per year." 



After looking at the shoreline, the group 

 wades through the brackish water and looks for 

 eroded blocks of peat 



"High-wave energy breaks off large blocks 

 of peat," says Riggs. 



For the teachers and students, the hands-on 

 experience is invaluable. "It makes science a little 

 easier when you can apply it to everyday life," 

 says Kim Whitley, a Perquimans County High 

 School student. 



John Blake, a North Whiteville Academy 

 teacher, agrees. "This experience will give me 

 some new strategies to take back to my 

 community," says Blake. "I will be applying 

 some of the concepts learned to the Lumber 

 River Basin and wetlands in Columbus County." 

 After the field trip, the students and 



teachers divide into groups. 



The next day, they conduct beach profiles. 

 The South Nags Head group takes photos of 

 homes in the surf with septic problems. 



"We learned so much about beach erosion 

 rates because it is so pronounced at South Nags 

 Head," says Buck Bunch, Perquimans County 

 High School teacher. Some of the cottages that 

 are oceanfront lots now were on the second and 

 third row from the ocean 15 years ago, he adds. 



Team Work 



By creating a partnership between students, 

 teachers and university people, you get a much 

 richer product, according to Dawkins. 



"We couldn't have assembled a better 

 group of people for the task," she says. "The days 

 were long and hard and hot — but the teams 

 performed their work with great enthusiasm. We 

 didn't have one whiner in the group. As a result of 

 their work, we have a treasure trove of observa- 

 tions, measurements, photos, videotapes and 

 interview notes that will serve as the raw 

 materials for the finished product" 



By the end of the week, the students and 

 teachers are ready to interview elected officials, 

 business people and government representatives. 



"We learned that you need to look at 

 different perspectives when dealing with an 

 issue," says Bunch. "Scientists, property owners 

 and officials have different viewpoints. You need 

 to get everybody's input to make a good 

 decision." 



Next summer, the materials will be refined. 

 During the 2003-2004 school year, teachers will 

 test the products, which will include inquiry- 

 based lessons. 



"By the end of the project, approximately 

 60 teachers will be using the materials with more 

 than 1,800 students," says Dawkins. 



She hopes that the new earth science 

 resources will give students a broader perspective 

 about the North Carolina coastal environment 



It's not hard to see that many of our citizens 

 have misused some of our most valuable natural 

 resources, but this is due primarily to a lack of 

 education, says Dawkins. "One way to solve this 

 problem is to help students weigh important 

 issues," she adds. 



"The ultimate goal is to develop informed 

 citizens, beginning with high school students and 

 teachers." □ 



COASTWATCH 15 



