Field Trips - Stream Study |
Every September and October Tetonia 4th Grade teacher, Barb Agnew, runs a “Stream Study” program for her students. The kids learn about stream ecology and geomorphology, and participate in streambank restoration projects. Lyn Benjamin, FTR, participates by spending time in the classroom and on Spring Creek working with the kids and parent volunteers. This year the class helped harvest willow cuttings and plant willows on FTR’s Teton River restoration project. Below are quotes from their experience.
“I liked planting the willows. To plant the willows we had to use a stinger. A stinger is a long, powerful water gun that you push into the ground and it makes holes for the willow branches.”
“Velocity was fun to learn about. Velocity is a word that describes how fast something is moving. We studied velocity by dropping pine cones into Spring Creek, after starting the stop watch. David Amador timed the pine cones to see how long it took for the pine cones to travel five meters. Then I found that the stream was faster in some spots and not so fast in others. I like to get wet.” “I liked planting willows. I like to use the stinger ‘cause it shot out water. My favorite part about stream study was cutting the branches off the willows.” |
Stream Study on Spring Creek
“The appearance of the water at Spring Creek isn’t too appealing. There’re old tires and garbage littered throughout the stream. We studied the water appearance by comparing one section to another and making observations with our eyes. The water quality is good in some spots. We found a whole lot of bugs that need good water like Stonefly nymphs.” 
“Learning about critters at Spring Creek was fun. I liked finding macroinvertebrates that were under the rocks. We also used a kicknet. To use a kicknet you kick dirt into the net. Then you pick the underwater bugs out of the net and put them on a tray. Next we put them in ice containers full of water. Now, sort and count the critters.”
