River Works is a stewardship education initiative developed by the NYU Wallerstein Collaborative and funded by NYC Parks and the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). It is centered around the Hudson River Estuary Watershed and is composed of a stewardship component in the North Shore of Staten Island and the development of a city-wide stewardship education curriculum.
The stewardship component consists of school field trips and community events, at several waterfront parks on the North Shore of Staten Island that were heavily impacted by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 (Faber Park, Alice Austen Park, Von Briesen Park, Heritage Park, North Shore Esplanade). These stewardship events are led by NYU educators and consist of hands-on service learning and community science experiences, such as: beach cleanups, water quality monitoring, air quality monitoring, invasive species removal, tree care, tree inventory and much more.
The River Works Curriculum is an interdisciplinary and place-based online resource for grades K-8, that focuses on the Hudson River Estuary. Professional Learning workshops on stewardship will be offered to New York City teachers and educators. The curriculum is available to the public through the NYU Wallerstein website and NYC Parks.