News
Mystic Seaport announces Annual Education Award winner
By Mystic Seaport
May 10, 2008 - 1:32:04 AM

William Federowicz, a sixth grade teacher at Booth Hill Elementary School in Shelton, has been named this year’s recipient of the Mystic Seaport Orion Award for Excellence. Federowicz will be honored at an awards dinner May 16.

Each year, Mystic Seaport presents the award, to a teacher who draws upon the rich array of educational opportunities offered at Mystic Seaport to create innovative and experiential classroom lessons.

“Great teachers are like constellations,” said Susan Funk, vice president of education and public programs at Mystic Seaport. “They help students navigate by pointing the way, leading them to new lands and then home again, wiser and more experienced.”

Federowicz, along with fellow teachers Chris Margait and Eileen Moore, has developed and implemented a Mystic Seaport-centered interdisciplinary unit for sixth graders at Booth Hill Elementary. Through the integration of language arts, science, social studies, art, music and physical education, Federowicz brings Connecticut’s coastline to life and shows students how important their impact can be on the ecosystem and their community.

In Federowicz’s classroom, students take an in-depth look at cetaceans and their current role in ocean ecology, as well as examine the historical impact whales have made on New England’s economy. Throughout the school year, students keep a “whale man’s log,” which acquaints students with the unique life of a whaler and also helps students better understand the relationship whaling had with individuals and communities. Students also learn sea shanties, create scrimshaw and reenact period dances.

A year-end field trip to Mystic Seaport is the culminating educational experience in Federowicz’s classroom. Once on Museum grounds, students participate in an historical scavenger hunt which utilizes the instruction and knowledge they have accumulated throughout the school year.

“Bill Federowicz and his grademates provide Shelton students with the opportunity to grow as active learners,” said Lorraine B. Rossner, assistant superintendent of Shelton Public Schools. “Through instruction, our students better understand their New England heritage, as well as the history of the water and the whale. Mystic Seaport provides the tableau in which the students learn and Bill provides the nuggets of knowledge the students bring with them to the ‘mystic’ experience.”

Mystic Seaport is the nation’s leading maritime museum and features a working preservation shipyard, a re-created 19th-century seafaring village, exhilarating exhibits and a planetarium. The Museum is located one mile south of exit 90 off I-95 in Mystic, CT and is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $18.50 for adults and $13 for children ages 6-17. Children 5 and under are admitted for free. For more information, call 888.973.2767 or visit www.mysticseaport.org.

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