McCown Students Create Website Secret Sites of Staten Island

Not the Forgotten Borough: McCown Students Create Website Highlighting Secret Sites of Staten Island

Every year, students at Gaynor McCown Expeditionary Learning School are required to take part in the school’s Intensives program, an exciting assignment that allows the teens to explore knowledge outside of the typical classroom setting on topics they find especially interesting. This year, the students collectively decided to create a website dedicated to highlighting the Secret Sites of Staten Island, hoping to showcase some of our most underappreciated landmarks and hidden gems in order to help people see why we should not be considered “the forgotten borough” anymore.

Led by staff members Ms. Sloan-Ward, Mrs. Langis, and Mrs. Kelly, the high schoolers set out at the start of spring to visit the Staten Island Museum and the Chinese Scholar’s Garden at Snug Harbor, as well as Conference House Park, Clay Pit Ponds State Park, Historic Richmondtown, the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art, the Alice Austen House and Fort Wadsworth. Each location unveiled new discoveries and fascinating facts even the most seasoned Staten Islanders might not know.

After visiting each site and completing their research, the students reported their findings on the Secret Sites of Staten Island website, including their own reactions to what they learned. The website features the names of the students who participated as well as a map of locations visited. A drop-down menu provides easy navigation from one location to another, with each page displaying a multitude of pictures, facts, videos, visiting information and even quotes from the site’s young creators.

Ms. Sloan Ward and Mrs. Langis reached out to Staten Island Parent to share the Secret Sites of Staten Island website with our audience, and we were more than happy to oblige. Click here (or below) to see all of the hard work Gaynor McCown students put in on this project, and be sure to share with your friends so they can check it out too. Congratulations to both the students and the teachers on a job well done – and thank you for reminding Staten Island that we are NOT the forgotten borough!