May 15th - May 19th
May 15th:
So the only thing we did today was Stream Leaders. Another day of helping students learn about why bugs are important to our water systems and how they help us tell how healthy the water is. one thing off topic, on the walk to the site one nice man, came up to us and said hi and right behind him were four little ducklings. Apparently, the mother was not to be seen and they waited several hours and still no mom (one of my co-workers after our event asked the employees of the park about the babies and they said that a rehabilitation center took the babies in). back on track though, we got to the site and everything was going well so far and I got into my waders and I thought to myself I have a feeling these waders will fill up with water since the sole of the boot was wet. Well, I got into the water and long behold water started filling my waders and most of my jeans got soaked and my socks got soaked. I decided it was best I got out of the water and dry off and lead a group of students in identifying the bugs.
The only thing I was disappointed in was that the students didn't really care about finding these bugs, they were more excited about not being in class. I wish I knew a way to get them more excited about this stuff. I pretty much tried everything I could think of and even my supervisor said that it's alright that there are a lot of kids that really don't care.
May 16th,
Lake St. Clair Water Festival... Water Festival day 1. . . I have to say I had a lot of fun. We checked in around 8 am and got a free shirt and were shown where we were presenting, since it was raining we were stuck inside. I and two other people (my co-workers) were running the Storm Water Race.
Storm Water Race:
four stations: Pesticides, Fertilizer, Dog Waste, and Trash
the students are broken up into four groups, one person from each group would run down to their station as fast as they could and do what is needed to pick their item up. Nerds or ticktacks were representative as pesticides and they had to sweep them up into a dustpan before running back to tag the next person. the regular potting soil was supposed to represent fertilizer, each student had to sweep all of the soil up and put into a flower pot before running back and tagging another student. Hershey kisses or tree bark were used in place of dog waste, each student had to either use a scooper or a plastic bag to pick up each item and place it into a little bin. Finally the last station each student had to pick up all of the trash and put it into a green bin before running back.
if the weather is nice enough we used squirt guns to squirt the students with water to represent the storm. if the students were not running fast enough or getting their station done fast enough they would get wet.
the first team to sit down would win and after everyone completes their station we would switch them until they completed every station.
During the festival, the students loved playing the game. there were a few students who were not into the game and slowed their team down. before we started the game we asked a few questions for example, what is stormwater? where does the water flow? what is the river that is nearby? and what lake does that river empty into?
we did get some smarta** answers but that's always expected. After the game, we asked them what they learned and why it is important. we also asked if teamwork is important.
I helped with the trash station of the game and I rather enjoyed it I think I almost lost my voice because of all the yelling I did to root on the students. Luckily after lunch, we moved outside since it was nice out and let's just say the kids had a blast.
May 19th,
Clinton River Water Festival.... Water Festival day 2!
Today was freezing, just the other day it was in the 80s today the high is 59... I was running the same game I was on the 16th. Wasn't too bad after running around, I did roll my ankle though so I was in a lot of pain after having lunch. Since we only had two groups before lunch my co-worker and I sat in on our supervisor's presentation about invasive species. this presentation was about how Invasives grow faster and die slower than native species. The presentation made students get into one big line and used a big piece of paper with how many steps to take when something happened. so, for example, phragmites would take 10 steps forward during growth and would take one step back if something negative happened.
after lunch, I would have to say is where I got my best groups except for one. They all had great questions but there were times where the students got out of hand and the teacher had to step in and tell their students they were being rude to us by talking over us and trying to do our jobs. I thanked over and over to the teacher for all the help they gave to us with our game since there were only two of us and we needed a total of four people to dump each station before the next student came.
Over all I loved this experience, working with 200+ students, listening to what they learned. I wouldnt mind doing this all over again. I rememeber saying last week that I was scared of doing this becuase of my fear of others judging me. It was not as bad as I thought. I do need to work on my speaking skills but over all I think I did great!.
So the only thing we did today was Stream Leaders. Another day of helping students learn about why bugs are important to our water systems and how they help us tell how healthy the water is. one thing off topic, on the walk to the site one nice man, came up to us and said hi and right behind him were four little ducklings. Apparently, the mother was not to be seen and they waited several hours and still no mom (one of my co-workers after our event asked the employees of the park about the babies and they said that a rehabilitation center took the babies in). back on track though, we got to the site and everything was going well so far and I got into my waders and I thought to myself I have a feeling these waders will fill up with water since the sole of the boot was wet. Well, I got into the water and long behold water started filling my waders and most of my jeans got soaked and my socks got soaked. I decided it was best I got out of the water and dry off and lead a group of students in identifying the bugs.
The only thing I was disappointed in was that the students didn't really care about finding these bugs, they were more excited about not being in class. I wish I knew a way to get them more excited about this stuff. I pretty much tried everything I could think of and even my supervisor said that it's alright that there are a lot of kids that really don't care.
May 16th,
Lake St. Clair Water Festival... Water Festival day 1. . . I have to say I had a lot of fun. We checked in around 8 am and got a free shirt and were shown where we were presenting, since it was raining we were stuck inside. I and two other people (my co-workers) were running the Storm Water Race.
Storm Water Race:
four stations: Pesticides, Fertilizer, Dog Waste, and Trash
the students are broken up into four groups, one person from each group would run down to their station as fast as they could and do what is needed to pick their item up. Nerds or ticktacks were representative as pesticides and they had to sweep them up into a dustpan before running back to tag the next person. the regular potting soil was supposed to represent fertilizer, each student had to sweep all of the soil up and put into a flower pot before running back and tagging another student. Hershey kisses or tree bark were used in place of dog waste, each student had to either use a scooper or a plastic bag to pick up each item and place it into a little bin. Finally the last station each student had to pick up all of the trash and put it into a green bin before running back.
if the weather is nice enough we used squirt guns to squirt the students with water to represent the storm. if the students were not running fast enough or getting their station done fast enough they would get wet.
the first team to sit down would win and after everyone completes their station we would switch them until they completed every station.
During the festival, the students loved playing the game. there were a few students who were not into the game and slowed their team down. before we started the game we asked a few questions for example, what is stormwater? where does the water flow? what is the river that is nearby? and what lake does that river empty into?
we did get some smarta** answers but that's always expected. After the game, we asked them what they learned and why it is important. we also asked if teamwork is important.
I helped with the trash station of the game and I rather enjoyed it I think I almost lost my voice because of all the yelling I did to root on the students. Luckily after lunch, we moved outside since it was nice out and let's just say the kids had a blast.
May 19th,
Clinton River Water Festival.... Water Festival day 2!
Today was freezing, just the other day it was in the 80s today the high is 59... I was running the same game I was on the 16th. Wasn't too bad after running around, I did roll my ankle though so I was in a lot of pain after having lunch. Since we only had two groups before lunch my co-worker and I sat in on our supervisor's presentation about invasive species. this presentation was about how Invasives grow faster and die slower than native species. The presentation made students get into one big line and used a big piece of paper with how many steps to take when something happened. so, for example, phragmites would take 10 steps forward during growth and would take one step back if something negative happened.
after lunch, I would have to say is where I got my best groups except for one. They all had great questions but there were times where the students got out of hand and the teacher had to step in and tell their students they were being rude to us by talking over us and trying to do our jobs. I thanked over and over to the teacher for all the help they gave to us with our game since there were only two of us and we needed a total of four people to dump each station before the next student came.
Over all I loved this experience, working with 200+ students, listening to what they learned. I wouldnt mind doing this all over again. I rememeber saying last week that I was scared of doing this becuase of my fear of others judging me. It was not as bad as I thought. I do need to work on my speaking skills but over all I think I did great!.
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