The 2017-18 School Year is the 2nd year of our NOAA sponsored “Climate Resiliency Fellows” Program. Our aim is to “Create a dynamic community of informed teachers committed to involving their students in learning about and engaging in local climate change issues and climate resiliency projects.” Many thanks to all of our hard working teachers and students!
The following is from Shining Mountain Elementary School Teacher Becky Hendrickson regarding their Water Quality Monitoring at Ohop Creek in February 2018:
Sometimes a glitch turns into something amazing. I had all my plans in place; A community partner was meeting us at the head of Ohop Creek, our water quality monitoring sight. The plan was for students to break into groups. Some students would be conducting the water quality tests while others participated in a macro-invertebrate study. Midway, the groups would switch giving students an opportunity to participate in both of the activities.
Our class arrived on site raring to get started but our community partner was nowhere in sight (there was a mix up on the date). What to do? I created a new task for the students, Garbage Control Inspectors. Their job was to save the fish and other wildlife from getting sick or even dead from unwanted garbage. The students took their jobs seriously. They collected the garbage and we took it back to school and analyzed what kind of trash was being left in and/or by our creek.
Later, when students were creating their power point for Green Congress, they decided to include the picture of trash they had collected. During the presentation at Green Congress, I was amazed how passionate the student was while sharing his experience of picking up garbage. What I assumed would be a 30 second note that students picked up garbage turned into a 2-3 minute stump speech about how the things collected could hurt salmon and other wildlife. The student’s enthusiasm for the topic spread to the audience. I watched a whole room of students engaged in a lively conversation about garbage!