Third Day Recap

We started the morning at the Finger Lakes Institute. The students observed aquatic macroinvertebrates from a creek in Skaneateles. The students used field guides to learn about how the organisms eat, breathe and hide from predators. They drew pictures of their favorite organism in their field journals.

Next, we played a game called "Create a Critter." The game involved picking one card from five piles and on the cards were different physiological and behavioral characteristics typical of aquatic macroinvertebrate organisms. Students had to create their own unique critter which met all of the characteristics on their cards. Rachael made an Armapoison Groundbug, Stephanie made a Food Fish, Madison made a Stick Paddler, Lucas made a Flying Devil, Liam made a Friendly Flying Water Insect, Mackenzie made a Bubble Paddler and Danika made a Blind Arma-bug.

We piled into the vans and drove to Hector, New York to visit Potomoc Pond in the Finger Lakes National Forest. Each student had their own net and tried to catch as many aquatic critters as they could. We caught many frogs in each metamorphic stage, from tadpoles to frogs with their tadpole tails to adult frogs. We also caught water scropions, cray fish, water boatmen, whirligigs, minnows, water striders, minnows, dragon fly larvae, damselfly larvae and stonefly larvae (among others).