St. Mary students visit Antietam battlefield to learn about watershed

SHARPSBURG — St. Mary Catholic School eighth-graders recently visited Antietam National Battlefield to participate in the Alice Ferguson Foundation’s Bridging the Watershed program.  

The program is used to determine stream health. Students also learned the history of a Civil War cannon and the proper way to fire the cannon by one of the park rangers.    

Bridging the Watershed is an outreach program of the Alice Ferguson Foundation, in partnership with the National Park Service and area schools, designed to promote student academic achievement, personal connections with the natural world, lifelong civic engagement and environmental stewardship through hands-on, curriculum-based outdoor studies in national parks and public lands. This is accomplished by field studies for students, teacher training and standards-based curriculum development.

The battlefield is in the Potomac Watershed.