The River Is Our Laboratory
At most schools, science happens in a room with the blinds down. At Christchurch, it happens on the Rappahannock, across its watershed, and along the edge of the Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the country, right outside the door.
Marine & Environmental Science
Science You Can Stand In
Our location is not a backdrop. It is the curriculum. From their first year, students treat the river and its watershed as a working laboratory, collecting real data, testing real questions, and studying the systems that shape the place they live, from the oyster farm on our waterfront to the wetlands and forests of campus.
The science here is hands-on and inquiry-based, built on the conviction that students learn the scientific method best by doing it in a setting few schools can offer.
This is not science reserved for future biologists and engineers. The program is built to draw out every student's curiosity, whatever their strengths, so that each one leaves able to ask a sharper question, gather honest data, and follow it to an answer. Those are habits that hold up long after the last lab report.
In the Field
Four Years in the Field
The integrated science sequence moves outward year by year, the same local-to-global arc that runs through everything at Christchurch.
Grade 9
The Ground Beneath Us
Students assess forest health, compare wetland biodiversity, and dig into the geologic history of campus itself.
Grade 10
Land and Water
Investigations turn to the link between land use and water quality across the Rappahannock River watershed.
Grade 11
The Bay as a System
Students take on the complex, interconnected systems in and around the Chesapeake Bay.
Grades 11 & 12
Original Research
In Honors Science Research, students run multi-year studies and work toward publishing their findings.
Real Research, Real Stakes
Work That Leaves Campus
Students in Honors Science Research do more than complete labs. They run original, long-term studies, monitoring water quality in Urbanna Creek or carbon sequestration in campus trees, and work toward publishing their findings with the Virginia Junior Academy of Sciences. Several science courses also carry dual enrollment credit through Virginia Wesleyan University, so the rigor counts twice.
Courses
Explore the Science Curriculum
Marine and environmental science is one thread in a full college-preparatory science program. The courses below are the ones rooted most directly in our place. You can see the complete department, including biology, chemistry, physics, and electives, on the Science page.
- Integrated Science 9
- Integrated Science 10
- Integrated Science 11
- Marine Science
- Honors Marine Science & Research
- Honors Science Research
It's all connected
Explore the Christchurch Experience
What happens beyond the classroom is woven into the journey, the laboratory, and the rigor of the program.