NYC H2O

New York City drinking water from upstate New York

NYC H2O is a series of educational tours and lectures about NYC's incredible drinking water system.

Matt Malina: A Life in Teaching

Native New Yorker Matt Malina is a teacher at heart. This inner drive to educate, to facilitate, to share, has allowed him to engage with — and learn more about — activities and topics as diverse as mathematics, athletics, and New York City's water supply.

Matt started out in the classroom, using his degree in applied math and his NYU teaching certification to teach at the middle and high school levels in New York City. After five years in public and private schools, he went out on his own as a private tutor.

Matt's approach is hands-on and practical. His area of specialty, applied math, typically uses math to solve engineering problems. At the high school level, this means giving kids objects to manipulate, like K'Nex or Erector sets, so they can make math take shape right in front of them.

"You can have kids build a triangle," he said. "It's a real thing they can hold in their hands. They can see that it won't budge."

Matt acknowledges that math is an area of struggle for many children, hence the hands-on philosophy and familiar "tools." He's even developed a tool for teaching fractions, a set of laser-cut discs called "Satisfractions," that gives kids a way to "see" fractions. He rides his bike around the city (even amid the rough weather earlier this year) to various tutoring appointments with his pannier full of teaching tools.

"I call it my bag of tricks," he said. "Whenever I see a good tool for teaching math, I try to include it in my repertoire."

Being a private tutor allows Matt to create his own schedule, leaving time for him to pursue other long-held interests, many of which include a teaching/guiding aspect.

When Matt first graduated from college in 1998, he moved to Philadelphia, where he enjoyed biking along the Schuylkill River and taking in the sights of Boathouse Row. After noticing a slightly nondescript boathouse on the bank of the river opposite Boathouse Row, Matt decided to investigate. The boathouse in question turned out to cater to athletes with disabilities. Matt began volunteering at the boathouse, custom-suiting boats depending on the rower's ability.

When he moved back to New York City, his friends at the boathouse hooked him up with Achilles International, an organization that facilitates the participation of athletes with disabilities in mainstream sporting events such as marathons, triathlons, and bike tours. Matt rides tandem bikes with athletes who are blind, and is "amazed" by their "mental toughness."

Matt's also amazed by the water in and around New York City. A few years ago, a trip to the Ashokan Reservoir in the Catskills got him interested in the city's water supply.

"Growing up in New York City, we were always taught that the city had great water that came from the Catskill Mountains," he said. "The city doesn't have to filter its water because the watershed and surrounding lands are pristine."

After his Ashokan trip, Matt attended a workshop at the Bronx River Alliance and met Damian Griffin, the education director of the New York Aquarium, who was also in attendance. Damian arranged for Matt to have a tour of the sewage treatment plant in Yonkers. While there, he met the senior museum instructor at the American Museum of Natural History. As Matt began doing more research on the water supply, he was able to set up a lecture at the museum with Diane Galusha, author of Liquid Assets: The Story of New York City's Water System.

Under the aegis of NYC H2O, Matt continues to offer programs that teach others about the past, present, and future of the city's water system. A small sampling of proposed events include: A bike tour of the Bronx River, and a selection of programs that will take place in all five boroughs, as well as two hikes in the Catskills.

Matt's interest in New York's water extends to swimming in it. He cites "swimming outside" as his favorite thing to do, mostly swimming the Brooklyn Bridge and Governors Island events — and finishing so fast that one wonders how much he actually enjoys the water. Though he describes himself as "competitive by nature," he says that the events are fun no matter what, thanks to the "friendly, down-to-earth" people the organization attracts.