Washington Middle School Flagship Water Explorers: Part Four

Introducing the Watershed Education Network’s Washington Middle School Flagship Water Explorers 2020 

By Deb Fassnacht and Jenna Rolle

Week Four: Marsh Soup

Our fourth week of Water Explorers I was really excited to try out a lesson I had found in a curriculum book in the WEN office: Marsh Soup! The goal of this lesson is to familiarize the students with the marshy area that surrounds Bancroft pond. The marshy areas may not be as classically beautiful or fresh as a flowing stream or an idyllic pond, but they support the bulk of riparian habitat for important plants, animals, and insects. Luckily, this batch of Water Explorers was more than happy to muck around in the marsh, regardless of stinky smells or unappetizing squishing sounds underfoot. 

To make marsh soup (or salad, or casserole, or whatever the students want it to be) each team was given a bowl and instructed to build a meal from the marsh. The teams were then to be scored on two criteria: quantity of ingredients and presentation. Both teams took different approaches. Team one opted for quantity, and ended up with 15 different plants, 6 different types of mud, and ice, stream water, and pond water. Team two created a beautiful presentation of seeds, moss and leaves, and still fit quite a few different ingredients in there.

 

It was really wonderful to see the whole team of explorers out there hunting for marsh treasures and mucking about in an area of the hydrologic cycle that most people ignore. We returned to Washington covered in mud and still chattering about all the cool stuff we found in the marsh. After a quick apology to the parents for the state of their clothes, I sent the students off for their Spring Break.

Washington Middle School Flagship Water Explorers: Part Three

Introducing the Watershed Education Network’s Washington Middle School Flagship Water Explorers 2020 

By Deb Fassnacht and Jenna Rolle

Week Three: More Cattails and Bugs!

Our numbers were cut in half for the third week of Water Explorers, with two of the team in band practice. But the weather was semi-decent so we packed our clipboards and colored pencils and walked down to Bancroft Pond. After seeing the students’ interest in cattails, I had thought to do a miniature plant lesson. Each student found two plants around Bancroft Pond and sketched them, and wrote down two things that they thought made that plant stand out from the others. We then looked in a Wetland Plant Identification book to try and identify the plants they sketched. Finding the dichotomous key to be a bit over even my head, we ended up looking up the plant names and comparing the page to the sketches. They had done a really awesome job identifying the key features of their plants and what set those apart from the others for easy identification.

Once the plant lesson was finished, we still had another 20 minutes before we had to head back to Washington, so the students had free ‘wander and explore’ time. During this time we encountered a gigantic bug, at least 2 inches long, crawling around on a log in the ice of the pond. Much shrieking and excitement ensued. Once we had safely escorted the bug back to its habitat, we packed our bags up once again and headed back to the school. 

Washington Middle School Flagship Water Explorers: Part Two

Introducing the Watershed Education Network’s Washington Middle School Flagship Water Explorers 2020 

By Deb Fassnacht and Jenna Rolle

Week Two: Meeting all the Water Explorers and Exploring Bancroft Pond

The second week of Water Explorers at Washington Middle School was the first time the troupe of water-lovers was all together. All four 6th graders were able to attend, Deb joined for the first part of the lesson, and I was excited to lead a group outing to Bancroft Pond. After introducing ourselves to each other and setting some ground rules for the program, we grabbed our best outdoorsy shoes, jackets, and gloves and headed down to the pond.

The aim of the first week was to get the students oriented to Bancroft Pond, a beautiful park just down the road from their school, and get a feel for their interests in the water-sphere. To prompt this, I had each student write down two observations and two questions they had after a day of exploring the area. The hope was to use these questions and observations as guides to help plan curriculum. I quickly noticed that what the students seemed most interested in were the cattails, which had recently begun to seed out and could be ripped apart and thrown like confetti. All in all, the students seemed to be incredibly happy to be outside, in spite of cold temperatures, and I was excited to have such an energetic and engaged group.

 

Washington Middle School Flagship Water Explorers: Part One

Introducing the Watershed Education Network’s Washington Middle School Flagship Water Explorers 2020 

By Deb Fassnacht and Jenna Rolle

In January of 2020, Watershed Education Network’s team reached out to Washington Middle School to see about expanding citizen science with students there. We were encouraged to consider the after school program, Flagship. In the winter, we met with Flagship leader, Kristian Stipe to learn about how we could work with the afterschool program and lead students in grades 6-8 on water observations, explorations, and record change over time as citizen scientists. Lucky for us, Jenna Rolle, a winter volunteer and former hydrologic technician, wanted to join the afterschool explorations. Deb and Jenna kicked off this spring’s program.

Week One: Meeting the Flagship Explorers and heading out to discover Pattee Creek and Bancroft Pond

On the first day, Deb met with a few interested students at the school. We met in the cafeteria room with the big cafeteria tables. All the Flagship programs had a table and sign directing kids to their activities. There were crafts, dungeons and dragons, robotics, and some martial arts. I went for one more trip from my car for art supplies and when I returned, I saw one young girl at our table. I asked if she was there for Water Explorers and she replied with a big smile, “Yes.” Then she quickly blurted out, “I LOVE water” and we both laughed. And I said, “I do too, it is one of my favorite places.” We decided to wait for others before going out the back door for a recess. One student came by and said he would be there next week. 

We played ‘Ga-ga-ball,’ a form of dodge ball in a fenced area where the goal is to bounce the ball twice (saying "ga-ga") trying to hit the other person with the bouncing ball. I was the one trying to avoid the ball. The ball pit was filled with ice, water and mud, so soon we were a bit wet and muddy. Since it was a March day with sun shining and the smell of melted snow was in the air, we both wanted to go explore! We decided to go follow Pattee Creek to Bancroft Pond and do some observing and scouting for the rest of the group the following week. 

Such a beautiful day! We enjoyed the sun, the feel of spring, melting snow and a breeze on our faces. Bancroft Pond was frozen and still, sun and shadows with a few birds overhead. We looked for geese and ducks that would be coming back as the weather warmed. Old snow, feathers, and cattails from the year before were bending near the icy trails. My student explorer checked out the ice along the edge of the pond and in the puddles we came across on the trail…snap, crackle, and crunch. We hurried back to the school so we could be on time. I was impressed that my young explorer wanted to pick up garbage we found along the storm drain and beside the sidewalk as we went. We timed our walk for the following weeks. It took 20 minutes from the door of the school to Bancroft Pond. We knew we could explore and have students back each week.