Three years ago, the class of 2026 gathered benthic samples from Traver Creek, and this past year, the CHS Ecology class took a trip to Crosswinds Marsh to study benthics once again. 26 students hopped on a school bus to Wayne County on Oct 21, 2025 to take a hike around the 1050-acre wetland to identify trees, vernal ponds, and various birds.
Jennifer Panek and Brenna Hogue, the marsh’s park manager and water resource designer, took the class on a hike throughout the wetland and forest. Courtney Kiley, Community’s ecology teacher, enjoyed being one with nature and experiencing new things with her students.
“I loved stopping and looking at the Sassafras leaves,” Kiley said. “Just watching the kids smell stems and experience the fruit loop smell was pretty cool.”
Kiley developed Community’s ecology class 11 years ago and has since used the annual trip to Crosswinds Marsh as a way for kids to learn about a really successful human-created wetland.
“In our wetlands unit, we learn about mitigated wetlands, which are wetlands that are human-created, often to replace natural wetlands that have been destroyed for development,” Kiley said. “Crosswind’s Marsh is an example of a really successful, mitigated wetland, which is rare.”
During the hike, CHS senior Lu Bliss, who attended the field trip, appreciated seeing how the things he was learning applied to a real-life setting. The ecologists who led the walk taught the class about vernal ponds and the organisms within them.
“We walked through the forest and learned about so many different things,” Bliss said. “I was so blown away. I had no idea fairy shrimp were even a thing.”
After a one-hour lunch break, the students collected data and observed benthic species within the marsh.
“We did a benthic macroinvertebrate sampling, which takes these kids full circle from FOS 1, because benthics are a good indicator of water quality,” Kiley said.
After finding damselflies, mayflies, backswimmers and smaller benthics, the class spent the last hour doing some terrestrial bug hunting. Kids ran around with bug nets catching butterflies, grasshoppers, dragonflies and ladybugs. Kiley enjoys watching her students “be free” and unwind from school stress by having fun in nature.
“I have this fond memory of Malcolm London in his plaid pajama pants chasing down bugs with a bug net like a five-year-old kid,” Kiley said.
The trip gave students a firsthand look at the ecosystems they study and introduced their next unit on wetlands. Seeing a successful, human-made wetland helped them understand how what they learn in class connects to real conservation work.
