Helmer Nature Center Field Trip

Tuesday our class traveled all the way to the western part of Irondequoit to visit the Helmer Nature Center.  Deep in the forest of the Helmer, our kids learned about macro invertebrates.  Our creeks and streams are full of these macro invertebrates. The kids learned that some of them can only live in pure clean water. Some can stand a bit of pollution and very few can live in polluted water. 

After a session learning about them in the classroom, our class traveled down to a creek to take water samples. 

Here the group is listening to instructions. 

 

In this group of pictures I was pollution and the kids were different macro invertebrates. Depending on which one they were assigned, they had different ways of moving. One group, who were pretending to be an invertebrate that cannot stand pollution, had to move by hopping in a potatoe sack. They were easy for me to catch. 

In this group of pictures the kids are taking water samples and using a chart to see what we found. One of the kids found dragonfly nymphs. When we got back from Helmer we researched the dragonfly. So cool to see their babies in the creek!

Another picture shows the chart of possible macro invertebrates in the creek. The kids spent a little time looking up some of them on our IPads

Last, on our way home we almost hit a wild turkey with the bus! This guy was crossing Titus Ave near Culver rd.