Our Outdoor Classroom - The Marshview Park Salt Marsh

 Written by Mr. David Winchester, LCHS Marine Biology Teacher

Other Salt Marsh Views

TOOLS AND SKILLS WE PRACTICED

...how to use fish traps and identify species of fish, using field guides, I plan on having living members of each fish group we may encounter, at least most...there will be curveballs in the field, but those will be fun...

...how to use water quality equipment, hydrometers, refractometers, pH meters, thermometers, etc.  We can easily get familiar with the equipment in the lab, I try and bring some water back at times to look at it more in depth, T/salinity/ph/ etc...many other parameters in the future.

...how to use surveying equipment, we could try it in our parking lot and field areas. ...how to identify birds in flight, etc...record markings, observations of behavior, field guide confirmation of identification...we get many of the same birds right in our ball fields near school that occur at the marsh as well...

...how to collect, organize, and analyze data of any kind...use quadrats, coring tools, cameras, scopes, spotting and micro... There are many others I am considering, these trips will allow us to develop and evolve our skills to the needs of what we are looking at closely during various times of year.

EQUIPMENT/SUPPLIES

            All necessary water testing equipment and collecting equipment is carried down and back by the students. 

Students are asked to bring a lunch or to bring money to buy something at a small pizza place near the marsh.

 We do not bring field guides with us. Any organisms we encounter are either drawn, photographed, written about,

or actually collected and brought back to class.  All field guide identifications happen back at LCHS.

THE IDEAL TRIP

            We go unless it is pouring rain, snowing, or close to freezing and windy. 

We meet in my classroom, take attendance,

get our gear together, and have a quick “Chalk Talk”, this is two to three minute talk by me on

 SmartBoard using aerial photo of our site.

  I talk about what we need to get done today at the Marsh. ie, Data collection, animal

collection/sampling, water testing/sampling, etc.

 No one gets hurt.  We get what we went for.

We see something cool.  We learn something new, and have some fun while we are at it.

.....and, we get back to school on time.  J

THE FIELD VISIT

Our site is the salt marsh at Marshview Park on the Lynn/Saugus Line at the mouth of the Saugus River Watershed. Our objective during our trips to the marsh is to do the following throughout the year.  Weather and tides usually dictate which activities we may be focusing on during a given week.

-Water quality monitoring (T/Sal/Ph) at various sites throughout the river and marsh.

-Sampling of fish species, and their numbers throughout the river and marsh, using traps and nets.

-Sampling of invertebrate species, and their numbers throughout the river and marsh.

-Record species list data and numbers for any mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian species we may observe.

-Collect and organize all data, on a daily, and weekly basis to analyze.

-Survey the marsh and river banks, and map out various grass species and zonation.

-Observe and measure tides and weather.

-Take mud core samples to see and id what may live in it, and what its composition.

-Collect plankton samples up and down river with the use of a plankton net.

 FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITIES

            We keep various animals we have collected in aquaria in our classroom.  We have seen shrimp molt on my camera.  Green crabs mate in our big tank, it lasted for days, and the kids couldn’t stop talking about it.  And we have to watch the mudsnails, they like to escape.  Slowly the marsh has come to live with us.  We keep a tally of all species we encounter, even if just visually, they have a greater appreciation for who lives in the salt marsh besides a bunch of grass.

            Each class that goes down currently gets temperature, salinity, and pH readings from three sites that we numbered along the marsh.  The time of day is usually the same, but the tide is always different, and weather conditions vary widely.  The day after a trip, I will go over the data from the day before with all classes on our SmartBoard.  We have an aerial map of the site and we can write the data right on the picture, and we have a class discussion about the data.  Usually we are all really good at explaining the differences in the data, but we do get crazy numbers sometimes, and we try and hypothesize amongst us on what might have caused the weird data.  It really amazes me how many kids really get the process at this point.  Using their knowledge of how salt and fresh water interact based on temperature and salinity, they can figure it out quickly, and also factor in the weather, wind, rain, air temperatures etc.

            Our goal is to form a database and to increase the water parameters we test.  They want to know about pollution in our marsh and the Saugus River .  I can see them caring more and more every time they visit and learn something new about our salt marsh.

Our Classroom at LCHS

THE CRITTERS...

WHY WE SHOULD TEACH, STUDY, AND EXPLORE...

...IF THEY CARE, THEY WILL PROTECT.

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