Traver Creek
On Thursday Oct. 5 a FOS I science class ventured down to Traver Creek. This visit was a part of a multi-visit project done by the FOS I classes every year surveying the creek. “I think the main thing that I want kids to get out of this is an appreciation for how science is really done,” Marcy McCormick said, the FOS I teacher.
Traver Creek is a small tributary to the Huron River flowing through farms and rural homelands in its northern parts and through urban Ann Arbor in the southern parts. The creek has clear pollution from the land surrounding it.
For the project students are broken into groups of about four. Each group is assigned a segment of the creek that they are responsible for studying. They collect benthics, make observations about the creek, and take measurements. The students put on waders and get into the river to take data on the depth of the creek, the width of the creek, and the speed of the water.
“In my middle school we just kinda sat in the classroom and we never really went anywhere or did anything, like it was all hypotheticals,” Nadia Naines said, a freshman at Community. “Now we’re actually going out and we’re doing something in the real world.”
McCormick values this project because it gives kids a sense of the value of science, and with this hands-on experience it makes it an even more memorable and authentic learning experience.
“With everything going on in the world around us, [both] local and national, having kids invested in understanding the science [of] things that affect them in the daily realm, is really important,” McCormick said. “And to then become scientifically literate is important, and to just become more aware citizens.”
