On any given school day, along the East 90th Street Ferry Pier you may see a group of 12- and 13-year-old boys from Saint David’s with their teachers, using professional tools to carefully monitor and measure oysters and water quality. Working in partnership with the Billion Oyster Project, they are citizen scientists helping to restore the oyster population in New York Harbor. The boys will return to their science labs and use their new knowledge and understanding about water quality to construct water tanks. They also take this knowledge with them on a three-day trip to the Pocono Environmental Education Center, where they conduct field work in the mountains, comparing the water quality of streams with that of the East River. These learning experiences, outside of a classroom setting, allow boys to engage in real-world work, ask real-world questions, and be part of real-world solutions. They are an ideal way to reach and teach boys. Because boys are active. They learn best by do...