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Signs of the Times
Immersion School Educators and environmental groups introduce kids to the wonderful world of waterways. By Laura Billings Coleman
NATURE’S CLASSROOM: Students at Patrick Henry High School in Minneapolis get an up-close view of the West Mississippi Watershed.
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with a dip net to see what they can catch. They find diverse life and learn how that diversity reflects water quality. “The program literally teaches kids to look beyond the surface,” said Julie Galonska, the chief of interpretation, education and cultural resource management at the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway (National Park Service). “It sparks their imaginations about discovering hidden things, exploring new areas and topics and seeing the world from a different perspective. Appreciation and understanding of the river is the foundation for growing its future stewards.” Teachers are also getting important lessons about the history of our waterways that they then take back to their classrooms. The Duluthbased Minnesota Power Foundation developed and sponsors PHOTOS THIS PAGE COURTESY PATRICK HENRY HIGH SCHOOL
ixteen-year-old LaTisha Hines was not enthusiastic about having to attend summer school— even less so when she learned most of her two-week science and sociology session at Patrick Henry High School in Minneapolis would be spent outdoors. “I’m more an inside person,” said Hines. “When I heard we’d be digging in the dirt, and going on hikes and going down to the river, I was like, ‘No way—I like my clothes to stay clean.’” Hines and her classmates needed a little nudge to get into nature, and teachers Kent Piccott and Tom Murray were happy to provide the push. The interdisciplinary summer school program they started four years ago immerses students in the environmental and political history of the nearby Shingle Creek/West Mississippi Watershed by asking students to test water quality, identify plant and animal species and bait their own fishing hooks with live worms. Hines’ favorite summer school assignment? The morning she spent floating on a raft on the Mississippi River for the first time, experiencing the power and flow of the river she sees almost every day, though rarely notices. “I think once you really see how beautiful it is, you want to do what you can to keep it that way, or even make it better, so that everybody can enjoy it,” she said. This lesson is one that educators and environmental groups are hoping more kids will take home from the Mississippi, its tributaries and rivers in general. Thanks to a host of new outreach efforts and education projects—including “River Watch,” which teaches Red River Valley kids about water quality—students across Minnesota and Wisconsin are getting in closer contact with their rivers. “Rivers Are Alive,” a fourth-grade curriculum developed by the National Park Service and the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, highlights the underwater river habitat and the connections that people and all living things at the river share. The heart of the program is a field trip to the St. Croix to go mucking, where students get in the river
WET LAB: Henry High School students use dip nets to explore Shingle Creek’s aquatic life.