Last week, third grade students from Two Rivers Community School took a field trip to the newly constructed wetland in Boone for a hands-on wetland exploration day. The students teacher, Allison Zich, was a Professional Naturalist when she lived in the Northeast, and she knows how important it is to have the kids experience the world around them. The first encounter was a "mama" snapping turtle scouting a place to lay her eggs, followed by bull frogs sitting on the submerged vegetation, dragonflies humming about and lots of bird calls. Throughout the morning, students got to view a dragonfly leave its larval exoskeleton and take off into flight.
Karee Mackey, Watauga County 4-H agent taught the kids about wetland soils, and pollination while Wendy Patoprsty, Natural Resources agent taught them about wetland function. The students got to collect live damselflies, dragonflies, water striders, whirligig beetles, backswimmers, diving beetles, water boatman and even microscopic life through the microaquarium. After learning how the new created wetland helps clean stormwater runoff they each constructed their very own hummingbird feeder. Hummingbirds are frequent visitors of the wetland! All in all we learned that wetlands are important ecological systems home to an array of diverse species in our community!
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