Enviro Club Does Important Fieldwork

Slurping up mud, seining for fish samples, testing the water, scooping up plankton, and netting nymphs in mangrove roots were some of the Enviro Club's real-life adventures at the Southgate Salt Pond! This group, that meets in Lower School Science after school on Wednesdays, has worked on a special project with Pennsylvania kids doing similar sampling experiments in a freshwater stream on their reserve property. SEA executive director and CDS parent, Megan Shoenfelt, has spearheaded the St. Croix end of the project to encourage our young scientists to spend time in the field where a respect for nature develops into further commitment to care for our environment. She has worked with teachers Caren Martin and Cynthia Hatfield on this project generously sponsored by Kennametal Co. of Pittsburgh, PA. Ask any of the CDS fifth and sixth grade participants about their day in the pond and all   the surprises:from slimy Mollies to fiddler crabs and nymphs eating redworms! They will tell you that they learned lots and enjoyed their field day more than textbook time, and that they can't wait to see the video tape of the day again along with that of their Pennsylvania school friends.   A video-conferencing hour at UVI allowed our groups to present their salt pond work to the students who have worked at Powdermill Nature Reserve and to meet them online. It has been an outstanding fall for nineteen young CDS environmentalists! This is not the end…..The learning goes on as the journals are expanded, the drawings keep coming, and the laughter and stories of mucking in the pond, testing for salinity and dissolved oxygen with real chemical kits, discovering wiggly plankton, and identifying mangrove sprouts and more continue. Hopefully, what has been experienced will last a life time. Then maybe our precious wetlands will also endure.