ALBRIGHT — The squeals of delight from the Cheat River weren’t what you’d expect from a summer class.
“I found a minnow!” 4-year-old Carter Sapp said. “I found a bug,” said Wyatt Morris, 9, by his side.
Then again, this isn’t your typical summer class. June 7 was the final day of the Fellowsville Stream Camp, a cooperative effort between After School Explorers and Friends of the Cheat (FOC).
Over the course of three days, FOC showed children how to test the pH of water, identify stream life and other lessons. The course concluded Thursday June 7 with a field trip to the Cheat.
“I learned that a snail’s shell is counterclockwise,” noted Brandon Miller, 10. And Kirsten Reese said her favorite part of the class was looking for bugs.
Fellowsville Site Instructor Jeniffer Sapp said seven to nine children, ages 4 to 11, attended the free class each day.
“The biggest thing they’ve learned is not to judge a stream by its color,” Sapp said. In one instance, a container of clear water was found to be too acidic for life.
After time in the river, the group gathered around a microscope on a tree stump and cloths placed on the ground on which FOC staff dumped out water containing creepy crawlies of all sorts.
“Let’s get our science on!” FOC Director Amanda Pitzer said.
With laminated papers that were “a key to macroinvertabrate life in the river,” the students carefully picked up crawdads, bugs and other critters and identified them. Sometimes they had to be put under the microscope to be sure.
“Excitement. It’s all excitement. It’s the only way you could describe it,” instructor Destinee Spiker said.
Pitzer said they hoped several lessons were imparted. One is “knowing that there are folks like us out there” who believe in conservation. Another is to convey the concept of being good stewards.
“When we close today, they get it,” Pitzer said. “It’s an easy concept to understand.”
Thursday concluded with a scavenger hunt and making paper boats to put in the water.
To contact Friends of the Cheat about a class or demonstration, go to cheat.org or call 304-329-3621. For info on other free summer After School Explorers programs, go to Preston Reads on Facebook or call 304-288-5244.
