Day 8...5th grade!

Today was a beautiful day! The weather was fantastic and it was actually a small group. There were only 17 students so we did the visit as a whole group except for the hike. We started off with the intro to the wetlands and then we went on in to the wet lands for dipping.We found fairly diverse macroinvertebrates in the wetland. The students loved being in the water and searching for things!

After that, we went into the garage to try to identify the macroinvertebrates that we found. The students were very engaged in trying to identify what they caught. It is always a lot more fun when the students are enjoying themselves. They did a great job figuring it out.

When we were done identifying all the critters we could, we took a quick break for lunch. Once we were recharged, we took the students on a hike! Since there weren't many of them, we got in pairs and had three students in each group. My group was really great and observant. I co-taught with Alejandro Apis and we had 3 girls in our group. We found many Leopard Frogs, a baby Painted Turtle, Red Winged Black Birds, deer tracks and coyote tracks. We also got to eat some cattails! The girls had a great time on our hike and were very interested in what we were teaching them. It was a great hike!

After our hike, we played Macroinvertebrate Mahem. I helped out and played the role of soil pollution in the water. The kids learned a lot about how water quality affects the macroinvertebrets and what we can do to help.

went out on the wetland in canoes. Each hiking group got a canoe and then two groups of leaders went out on canoes. We had a lot of fun and it was great seeing the students learn how to use the paddles to get around the wetland on their own. They had fun and were even chasing each other around while boating.

Jordan lead the swamp gas experiment, a group did the scat rat ( which did not include much enthusiasm from the students), and then they were done with their visit. Overall, the visit went really well and I think the students had a great time!

After the students left, we had class on the canoes and then went to JR's for some ice cream! I had such a great time hanging out with everyone. When we got back, there were two swallows that flew into the guy's house! They scat all over the place! Great times and great nature.