At times, adolescent laughter and conversations drowned out the chirping insects, singing birds, and rushing water. But when it was time to step into the water, the visitors grew quiet and attentive.
Walker-Grant Middle School sixth graders gathered on the banks of the Rappahannock River Wednesday morning for an up-close lesson hosted by the Friends of the Rappahannock. Many of them had never stepped foot in the river before, and now it was time to wrangle into waders and experience the river in a new way.
The students’ sojourn was part of the Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience (MWEE), which is funded by a $236,000 three-year grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The program brings students outdoors for hands-on activities that investigate the environment around them.
The students disembarked from buses onto the Embrey Dam Trail and walked down to a sandy beach on the river’s shore.
“What can we tell about the river just by looking at it?” Rachel Thomas, environmental educator with FOR, asks the group. “Look at its color, what does that tell you about it?”
Rachel Thomas (left), environmental educator with Friends of the Rappahannock, guides a group of 6th graders to assist her with a kick net. (Photos by Kathy Knotts)
Most of the students thought the river was dirty based on their observations. But there was more to investigate below the surface.
The groups joined educator Claire Wilmore for a science lesson on water quality by looking at turbidity, pH, nitrates, phosphates, temperature and dissolved oxygen after scooping a bucket of water out of the river.
Other students gamely waded into the water to assist Thomas in collecting biological samples in her kick net.
The net was then placed on a table so the kids could see what they had stirred up from the river’s bottom.
Hidden in the mud and leaves were organisms barely visible to the naked eye. These tiny macroinvertebrates are an important indicator of the river’s health. For example, dragonflies are easily recognizable insects once they don their wings and take to the skies, but many of the students didn’t know that they spend the first few years of their lives as nymphs under the water’s surface. And they need clear, clean water to survive.
Wednesday’s groups plucked out mostly tiny snails, not surprising after recent rains had churned up the river, washing sediment downstream.
“Finding a variety of species — biodiversity — combined with a number of species sensitive to pollution tells us that the water is sustaining a healthy ecosystem,” explained Jen Gron, FOR’s field trip coordinator.
Claire Wilmore, an FOR environmental educator, shows a Walker-Grant student how to measure the turbidity in water scooped from the Rappahannock River.
Later in the day, the students participated in an activity using erosion boxes to demonstrate how plant material holds soil in place and filters water. The Fredericksburg Area Museum presented to the students a station that explored the history of the river’s connection to the community. They researched the Fredericksburg Flood of 1942 through a primary-source analysis activity and a hands-on activity.
While these field trips are part of the curriculum for states in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, they also represent an opportunity to learn about the future of the environment where students live and play.
This outdoor classroom connects children with nature and the issues facing their local rivers and streams. It offers a chance to spot a nesting box in the trees or discover a mayfly under a rock, making it both educational and rewarding.
It also means the kids who experience the natural world are more likely to work to protect and restore it.
