Experiential outdoor education with Salmon Watch continued this week with three more field trips! We are nearing the end of our 2016 field trip season, with 45 field trips completed and only 6 more to go.
This week’s field trips were:
Monday, November 7th – Forest Grove High School – Cedar Creek
Tuesday, November 8th – Walt Morey Middle School – Eagle Creek
Tuesday November 8th – Forest Grove High School – Cedar Creek
Salmon Watch provides valuable, hands-on learning experiences to middle and high schoolers, connecting the next generation of decision-makers with nature, increasing their scientific and environmental literacy, and ensuring they understand the importance of Oregon’s natural heritage.
It’s also fun! Volunteer Chris Toole describes his experience teaching the Salmon Biology station at Cedar Creek this week:
“We saw two live salmon (looked like Chinook) swim by briefly during the day. All stations stopped what they were doing to watch them. We could also see them off and on in the pool upstream from the bridge. I found two carcasses just upstream of bridge before class arrived and I took them up on bridge for them to look at closely. One was a male Chinook and one a male coho, both unclipped [i.e. not hatchery fish, which have their adipose fin clipped to distinguish them from wild salmon]. The coho was fresh enough to cut open for discussion of internal anatomy.”
As always, these engaging and enlightening encounters with wild salmon wouldn’t be possible without the contributions of time, energy, and knowledge from our amazing volunteers, who make space in their busy schedules to educate and interact with students.
That’s why we’ll be announcing our end-of-year celebration and volunteer recognition gathering very shortly. Stay tuned for information on how to join the festivities!
And, check back next week to read about the 9th and final week of our 2016 Salmon Watch field trip season!
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