NEWPORT — The Memphremagog Science and Education Center (MemSEC) celebrated its soft launch with an Earth Day Open House on Tuesday, marking an expansion of environmental education opportunities in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.
The new center, located in the upper level of Newport’s Gateway Center, serves as a hybrid learning facility that complements the organization’s floating classroom aboard the Northern Star vessel docked at the Newport City Docks.
“Our goal and intention with developing this space was to create a year-round opportunity for folks to engage with the natural world,” said John Aldridge, Director of MemSEC . “Lake Memphremagog is very cold during the winter and of course we can get kids out in their coats and jackets, but it’s a lot more cozy when you have a functional space like this to teach within.”
The educational programs have shown significant growth, with 468 students participating in floating classroom experiences in 2023 and 2024, including 17 floating classroom trips, 16 school groups visiting the center, and 16 lessons conducted in local schools.
The center was developed with funding from the Vermont Community Foundation through its Better Places program, which provided a two-to-one match after the Memphremagog Community Maritime (MCM) raised $20,000 within the community. The funds were designated specifically for developing MemSEC as a public space with an emphasis on information about local indigenous Abenaki groups.
Aldridge described the center as having a “modular sort of system” that allows the space to be reconfigured for different needs, from public exhibits to school groups to meetings with collaborative partners in outdoor recreation or conservation.
Visitors to the center can expect to find both interpretive panels and hands-on “explainer stations.” The interpretive panels cover topics including the formation of Lake Memphremagog, upland and aquatic habitats, and information about the Abenaki tribe of Odanak, detailing “the original inhabitants of this landscape, their way of life, and how that way of life changed over time,” according to Aldridge.
Among the interactive features is a stream model that allows visitors to experience stream formation, erosion, and deposition firsthand.
“It’s really wonderful for students and participants to have their hands in actual earth materials to learn about some of these ecological processes that affect our world,” Aldridge said. “As we know, a healthy river and a healthy lake, it all starts upstream. So the decisions that we make upstream in a watershed result in the quality of the water that we have in the lake.”
Another highlight is an augmented reality sandbox utilizing Xbox 360 scanners and projector technology to create topographic maps, which Aldridge described as taking “something that’s very common in schoolyard settings and it turns it up a notch to sort of 21st century skills and technology.”
The floating classroom program that MemSEC complements initially launched in 2018 as a collaboration between the Memphremagog Watershed Association and the University of Vermont’s Rubenstein School of the Environment. In this program, students conduct plankton tows to collect samples and examine them under digital microscopes, and measure water clarity using Secchi disks.
After a pause during the pandemic, the program was revived and expanded to include numerous local schools including Newport City Elementary, Derby Elementary, Troy School, along with Coventry, Irasburg, Brownington, and Barton.
Aldridge will lead the floating classroom alongside Michelle Tingley, who will begin as program coordinator in May. They will be supported by a team of volunteers.
Among those volunteers is Vera Lawson, a graduate student at Rutgers who is finishing her Ph.D. in Earth Science, Geology and Climate Research. Lawson, who has volunteered on the boat for the past two years, spoke about the students’ reactions to the program.
“When they start to see those little bugs under the microscope start to move, they get so excited and wondering what they are. And realizing that when they go swimming in this lake, they’re not the only ones in there,” she said.
Aldridge emphasized that for many students in the area, the floating classroom provides their first experience on a boat. Recent funding from the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission and the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board has helped eliminate financial barriers, making the program more accessible.
“We’ve actually eliminated some barriers for affordability to make it more possible than ever. So we’re actively recruiting for school groups in the Northeast Kingdom and in southern Quebec. And we’d love to make this program available to all students,” Aldridge said.
The center is seeking volunteers with backgrounds in natural sciences, water quality, and water chemistry. French speakers are particularly valuable for working with students from Quebec.
