Students at the various learning stations with Barbara Maynard at Macro Mayhem station in the top right and Darlene Haun at creek chemistry comparative station bottom right.
On May 18th, eighty 4th graders from Mason Ridge Elementary came to Love Park in St. Louis for a learning experience outside the classroom. The students rotated through four learning stations which included a live macroinvertebrate display, a creek chemistry comparative demonstration, an invasisve garlic mustard removal station, and an environmental active game station. The students sorted through rocks and sticks in trays filled with water to find and identify the macroinvertebrates hiding under them; compared creek water and water polluted with fertilizer for nitrates and creekwater kept cold in the shade versus in the sun for dissolved oxygen; and learned to identify and remove the non-native, invasive garlic mustard choking out the natives in the park. Through playing a game of tag known as Macro Mayhem, the students illustrated how pollution and other environmental stressors effect macroinvertebrate populations in a stream. Stream Team AmeriCorps members Stacy Arnold And Barbara Maynard helped organize the event and came out to work that day along with Darlene Haun from MDC and several other dedicated Stream Team volunteers. The event proved to be educational for both the students and the teachers. One of the attending teachers wrote, "Thank you, thank you, thank you for ALL of your hard work!! The kids really learned a lot and so did we!"
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