Today we had fifth graders from Harrison Elementary School. Originally I was supposed to spend the morning leading the hikes and the afternoon at the ID station with Ryan. Due to a miscommunication about buses, we ended up not splitting the group. They all went to do rocks and then they all did the wetland in the afternoon. Because of this, we all got to go to the glacial retreat center in the morning. I got to shadow Stacy while she lead the students in the pit and on the hike. It was nice to be more crowd control and less teaching, especially since I didn't know the material well. Stacy did a phenomenal job, she was so enthusiastic and I throughly enjoyed watching her teach and helping her with whatever she needed from me. On the hike, Ryan and I showed them the wild edibles we could find in between Stacy's information. It was nice to be able to hang at the back of the group and make sure that they were keeping up and hearing everything Stacy was saying. In a way, they all had no choice but to pay attention because I was herding them all towards her and telling the stragglers in the back to pay attention.
In the afternoon I ran the ID station with Ryan, and Stacy assisted us. It went really, really well. We decided to shut the garage door and have the students use the actual door to try and make the transition from ID to dipping less chaotic with the waders. AT the beginning I reviewed with students about what a Macroinvertevrate was. Then we talked about how to use the stereoscopes and monoscopes. We gave each student a macroinvertebrate and then they got to look at it, draw a picture of it, and try to identify it. They loved it. Only a few students were freaked out by the macroinvertebrates. Most of them were really excited about it and were so excited to identify them. Ryan ran the tallying and helped them do the math for the pollution index. He did a really great job with them and getting them excited about what they found and what it meant about the water quality.
Despite it being cold, the students seemed to have a lot of fun. They were pretty engaged. They loved finding the rocks that they could take home. They were just a lot of positive energy. They knew a lot of things already from what they had been learning in school which was really helpful. Unfortunately I had to leave early so I didn't get to participate in the last few parts of the day. It's sad to think that I only have one more day of this until I leave for Alabama, it has been a lot of fun. I definitely enjoy younger grades better than older grades still. I also like teaching exploring nature better than wonderful wetlands, but all of it is fun.
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