River Explorers

5th & 6th graders now know more about the Ohio River Valley Watershed. We seined Sharon Woods Creek and collected samples of macro-invertebrates and plankton. Then we learned that the structures of an organism affect where it lives, what it eats and how it survives. While observing water samples we identified bio-indicators. Pollution levels in the water were low enough to support caddisfly, stonefly, water pennies, damselfly, and crayfish. That's a good thing. The bucket brigade illustrated the enormous amounts of fresh water that the average U.S. citizen uses daily---~120 gallons. We also got a first hand look at erosion patterns and how easily our fresh water reserves can become polluted with out enough groundcover and buffer forests. On top of all of that---we got really wet!