Washington Middle School on Thursday October 1st
kicked off its first flagship program event and WEN was able to participate!
This week’s lesson was based on the different types of aquatic macro
invertebrates that inhabit our local streams and rivers. Students were not only taught the general
importance of macros as indicator species of pollutants but students also
received an in depth lesson on the different feeding groups within our local
macro invertebrate community.
Students
were informed of two ways to categorize macroinvertebrates: how the food is
obtained and or the type of food that is consumed. While both are proven to be accurate, macros
are omnivores and may feed on different food sources seasonally. Therefore we
focus on how food is obtained by macros as means for categorizing. Macro
invertebrates are divided into five primary categories. Scrapers, shredders, collectors, engulf-
predators and piercers.
As a
way to test the ability of macros to break down and consume detritus, students
in pairs collected leaves and created leaf packs. Leaf packs are roughly
softball sized and are contained by netting with small holes to allow macros to
freely move in and out of leaf packs.
The
leaf packs are currently submerged at student chosen locations in ponds near
Washington Middle School. We will revisit Washington Middle School’s flagship
program this week after having collected the leaf packs. In class students will
weigh their leaf packs and compare them to the pre-pond submersion weight that was
obtained last Thursday. After comparing
the two weights, students will consider the influence that macros had on the
total weight changes and rate of consumption.
Thanks
to all of our students, Washington Middle School’s flagship program coordinator
Mike Lessard and the faculty that helps keep applied science in the classroom!
