MOSS Day 3

Hello Families!

Today was an amazing day at MOSS!  It was a little warmer than yesterday, which really allowed us to be more mindful and intentional with our thinking in the field.  We started the day with a classroom discussion around ecosystem services within the riparian zone.  Following this we broke out into expert groups and developed conceptual understanding and skills with pH, turbidity, water temperature, dissolved oxygen, and macroinvertebrate diversity as an indicator of water quality.  Each group learned the concepts and sampling methodology and then taught those concepts to the rest of the class.  Around 11:00 we worked with a scale watershed model and analyzed the different variables that influence soil retention and bank erosion.  After this we packed up, hopped in the cars, and drove out to a stream system south of McCall.  At this site we used the sampling methods we learned in class to conduct a watershed assessment. Our central focus was to determine whether or not that river was a suitable habitat for steelhead.  I find it very important that our work at MOSS directly tie into our expeditions and support our kids in developing understanding and skills necessary to carry out final product work, and today fit right in line with that thinking.  The watershed assessment concepts and skills we developed today will be put to real-world use next week when we conduct our assessment on Sweetwater Creek (which we still need drivers for if you are interested).  After all of our hard work we had a nice canoe session this afternoon (and yes all the Palouse Prairie kids sang the canoe song – brilliant).  To cap the day off we had a fun geocaching activity.

-Mr. Pierce

morning discussion to review ecosystem services

breaking out into expert groups

initial instruction of sampling methodology for temperature and turbidity

yours truly providing background information on pH

Taylor using a thermometer to test temperature differences between clear and turbid waters

Lena and Cathan sampling dissolved oxygen

scale experiment to look at erosion and soil retention

Aesthetic value is most certainly an ecosystem service

never leave 6th grade girls unattended for more than 15 seconds...

Lena, Jonna, and Tobias sampling dissolved oxygen, temperature, and pH in the Payette River

Jordyn and Rhett sampling

Lauren and Ashton sampling

Sara collecting data on water velocity

our biodiversity assessment revealed the presence of many sensitive insect species, a good indicator of high water quality

Noah and a dragonfly larvae

Sarah 'Darnit' Darney collecting biodiversity data (a fancy word for bug hunting).

Back at MOSS, we analyzed our data, and concluded that this system was suitable for steelhead.