Goodwin College’s high school magnet school, the Connecticut River Academy, hosted a Green Magnet Theme Day on September 25, 2015.

Green Day, which is one of CTRA’s largest community service projects, supports the Academy’s sustainability theme, allowing students to learn in a project-based environment tied to real-world skills.

The Green Day program featured the annual Source to Sea Clean Up of the Connecticut River, sponsored by community partners including Pratt and Whitney, CT River Watershed Council, DEEP, and Goodwin College.

“One of our school’s standards includes demonstrating the impact of individual and social actions. Our magnet theme days give us that opportunity,” said Michele Saulis, CTRA Environmental Theme Coach.

Students were able to take a boat ride on Connecticut River Academy’s research vessel, the R/V Goodwin Navigator. They also had the opportunity to speak to businesses at an environmental career fair, tour Goodwin’s Manufacturing school, fish off the dock, listen to a reptile presentation, and watch an environmental-themed movie.

Alexys Ross and Camryn Davis, both juniors at CTRA, snapped photos for the yearbook throughout the morning.

“I loved going on the boat. It was nice to see all that we’re surrounded by,” Ross stated.

Davis found the reptile presentation, a new addition to the program, very interesting. “It was cool to touch the reptiles.”

Haley Shepard, also a junior, said that watching the movie Animal Odd Couples was the highlight of her day. The movie featured unlikely cross-species relationships in the animal kingdom.

“Most public schools don’t have events like this,” she noted.

Check out photos on Flickr.