For more than a decade, Billion Oyster Project has seen what happens when students learn outside. Curiosity turns into agency. Science becomes tangible. And New York Harbor transforms from something distant into something students understand as part of their everyday lives.
Billion Oyster Project works with students, educators, and schools across New York City to connect classrooms directly to the harbor through hands-on, place-based learning. Students collect data along the waterfront, monitor live oysters, explore biodiversity, and engage directly with the ecosystems surrounding the city. The goal is to teach students about the harbor and to help them understand that they are connected to it.
In a world where young people are increasingly disconnected from nature—especially in dense urban environments and at a time when so much of life happens through screens—this work has become even more urgent. Spending time outside, near the water, and participating in real scientific inquiry helps students build observation skills and environmental awareness, as well as a stronger sense of place. It encourages curiosity about the nature-based systems around them and reminds students that wildlife is not separate from New York City, but deeply woven into it.
This work is built for a modern New York City classroom. Not every student learns the same way, and not every school has the same resources or access to outdoor spaces. Billion Oyster Project’s educational model is intentionally flexible and modular, allowing schools to engage at different levels while creating pathways for deeper exploration over time.
By 2030, the organization aims to reach one million students and educators across New York City. The goal is larger than participation numbers alone. Billion Oyster Project is working to build environmental literacy, long-term stewardship, and a generation of New Yorkers who understand the role nature and waterways play in the future of the city.
Much of science education happens through abstraction. Students learn concepts from textbooks, worksheets, diagrams, or simulations often disconnected from their own surroundings. Billion Oyster Project approaches learning differently by using New York Harbor itself as the classroom.
Students engage directly with the nature they are studying. They collect field data, monitor oyster growth, test water quality, and observe marine life firsthand. Instead of treating environmental science as something happening somewhere else, the work brings learning into local ecosystems students can physically experience.
This approach helps students build stronger connections to both science and place. Spending time near the water changes how students see the harbor and their relationship to the city around them. The goal is well beyond just content retention. The aim is to help students recognize that the harbor is alive, accessible, and worth understanding.
At the center of Billion Oyster Project’s education work is a growing library of curriculum and classroom resources designed specifically around New York Harbor. To date, the organization has developed more than 80 classroom-tested lessons that bring harbor science into schools through hands-on, inquiry-based learning.
Some lessons are designed as quick-entry classroom activities that teachers can incorporate into one or two class periods. Others are multi-week middle school STEM investigations aligned to NGSS standards and New York City’s Science Scope and Sequence. These units use oysters and New York Harbor as anchoring phenomena to guide students through larger scientific concepts and investigations.
The curriculum is intentionally designed to be adaptable. Teachers can integrate the lessons into existing classroom structures or use them to localize broader science curricula already being taught across the city. This flexibility allows schools to engage with the harbor in ways that fit their classrooms while still grounding learning in real-world systems students recognize and care about.
For many students, the first encounter with harbor restoration happens directly inside their classroom through the Oyster Research Tank Program. The program allows teachers and students to install and maintain live oyster tanks inside schools, creating small working ecosystems students monitor throughout the year. Students test water quality, track oyster growth and mortality, and conduct real scientific inquiry connected to living organisms rather than simulations.
The tanks make the harbor visible in classrooms that may be physically distant from the waterfront itself. Students begin to understand how oysters function biologically and why they matter ecologically while building lab-based scientific skills tied directly to real environmental conditions.
For teachers, the program also creates an entry point into more place-based science instruction. Educators receive training, materials, curriculum, and long-term support to integrate the tanks into daily classroom learning. More importantly, the program helps teachers feel confident using the harbor as a teaching tool, even in classrooms far from the waterfront itself. Over time, many educators expand beyond the tanks into outdoor learning, waterfront fieldwork, and deeper environmental investigations, helping shift how science is experienced across the school community.
While classroom learning is important, much of Billion Oyster Project’s work is centered around getting students outside. Research consistently shows that outdoor and nature-based learning can improve student engagement, strengthen academic performance, support social and emotional development, and increase long-term environmental literacy. Studies have also shown that students are often more focused, collaborative, and engaged after learning outdoors, while hands-on environmental education helps build stronger critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Through field expeditions, waterfront programs, and Oyster Research Stations installed throughout New York Harbor, students engage directly with marine ecosystems in the field. Oyster Research Stations function as underwater structures that support oysters and the marine organisms that naturally settle among them. Students and trained educators monitor biodiversity, oyster growth, and ecosystem health while contributing data directly to ongoing restoration efforts.
These experiences help students develop scientific skills through direct observation and fieldwork. More importantly, they help students build familiarity with environments that many New Yorkers rarely experience despite living in a city surrounded by water.
Billion Oyster Project also partners with schools, museums, aquariums, and cultural institutions across the city to create additional opportunities for students to engage with harbor restoration through exhibits, workshops, service days, and public programming. The work extends beyond individual classrooms into broader public spaces throughout New York City.
For some students, exposure to harbor science becomes something much larger. Through Billion Oyster Project’s long-standing relationship with Urban Assembly New York Harbor School on Governors Island—where Billion Oyster Project first began—students move from classroom learning into internships, fieldwork, and hands-on experiences connected directly to marine science, restoration, and waterfront industries.
Harbor School offers a one-of-a-kind educational experience centered around environmental stewardship, maritime learning, and career-connected education. Through eight state and industry-certified Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs, students develop real-world skills in areas like aquaculture, vessel operations, marine biology, diving, welding, and ocean engineering.
The partnership with Billion Oyster Project gives students direct access to active restoration work happening across New York Harbor. Students participate in field science, oyster restoration, ecological monitoring, and marine habitat research while contributing to the health of their own city’s waterways. Rather than relying on simulated learning environments, students work alongside scientists, educators, and restoration practitioners in real-world conditions.
What begins as exposure to the harbor can become a pathway into long-term careers connected to the water. More importantly, the experience helps students see themselves not simply as observers of environmental change, but as participants capable of shaping the future of New York Harbor itself.
Billion Oyster Project measures success differently than many educational programs. The organization is not focused solely on participation numbers or short-term engagement metrics. The larger question is whether students are building lasting relationships with New York Harbor and developing a sense of agency connected to the future of their city.
So far, the signs are encouraging. Students are engaging with science in new ways. Educators are bringing harbor-based learning into classrooms across the city. Students are building interest and skills over time through outdoor experiences and direct environmental engagement.
At the same time, the organization recognizes that the work is still growing. Reaching enough students across New York City and building long-term stewardship at the scale required remains an ongoing challenge. That is why the one million student goal matters.
The future of New York Harbor will depend on whether future generations understand that New York is not separate from nature, but deeply shaped by it, and feel connected enough to protect it. Billion Oyster Project’s education work is designed to build that connection early, creating experiences that stay with students long after they leave the classroom. Research consistently shows that people who feel a strong connection to the natural world often had meaningful exposure to it at a young age. In a city where many young people think they have limited access to nature, this work creates opportunities to build curiosity, stewardship, and a lasting sense of responsibility for the harbor and the future of New York City itself.
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