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Ninth-grader Maddie Zirkle of Charlottesville peers through a refractometer to check the salinity of Tappahannock's
Junior Ali Place (left) and sophomore Julie Seder start to dissect a shark during marine-biology class at |
ONE WEEK, but three different set- tings where students at St. Mar- garet's School, on the banks of the Rappahannock River in Tappahannock, learn about marine life and science in a revamped river program:
Senior Yoo Ri Jung thinks she's correctly identified arrow arrum, a prevalent wetland plant, when she sees it on a kayak trip along the pristine Dragon Run in Essex and Middlesex counties.
When ecology teacher Mollie Conklin paddles up, she gives Jung, who calls Korea home, a way to double-check.
"See the leaves, how they're sharp, shaped like an arrow?" she asks. "Another meaning for the word 'sharp' is a taste that's intense. Bite a small piece and see if it seems that way"
Ten seconds later, the warmth on Jung's tongue makes an impression that's sure to last.
A few days later, on Hoskins Creek in Tappahannock, ninth-grader Sherelle Tate strides out onto a small dock to take readings for dissolved oxygen.
Battling biting flies that make doing anything difficult, the student in teacher Milly Rixey's environmental-science class isn't deterred by the flies or the crowd taking readings on nitrogen, salinity and more.
Soon enough, Tate, from Lanham, Md., reports: "plenty of oxygen in this water."
In a classroom with a wall of windows a stone's throw from the Rappahannock, senior Jessica Hinson stares intently at the dogfish shark on a dissection tray before her in teacher Connie Grimm's marine-biology class.
Struggling to open an incision made by fellow senior Suzanne Atchison, Hinson, a day student from Farnham in Richmond County, sheds her rubber gloves.
"That's better," she says, using a pair of dissecting scissors to open the shark's belly. "Which one of these is the liver?"
Head of School Margaret R. Broad says the school's river studies got a boost in 1999 when a strategic-planning group urged using the river as one of the school's top five priorities.
"You don't have to go back too far to hear stories of the school's prohibition against even dipping a toe in the river," said Broad. "But the new river program and its use in all classes and curriculums has changed all that."
In some instances, that use is for field trips and hands-on study in river-related science classes, like the excursions last week to the Dragon Run swamp.
"We'd studied aquatic ecosystems for a week or two, and talked about the value of wetlands for flood control, water quality and habitat," said Conklin. "But seeing Dragon Run up close makes it more real."
A secondary objective, she hopes, is making students realize that the pristine stream and others like it are something to be visited, enjoyed and valued.
Grimm said her class uses the Rappahannock often, wading out to sample its aquatic life with seine nets.
"During our study of tides, we went down to the beach," she said. "You could see it click. They found the strand line we'd talked about in class, and could identify it."
Rixey said her class raised oysters earlier this year to be planted in a creek near the Chesapeake Bay, then made a field trip to see them planted.
On the visit to Hoskins Creek, an examination of grasses and plants generated a discussion of invasive plants, including the Phragmites reed that's a problem in the region.
Broad noted that the river that students see out their dormitory and classroom windows is used in disciplines other than the sciences.
"You see the river's influence in the students' art, or find it in stories written for a literature class," she said. "A math class might use the bridge nearby for a geometry problem. A history class might study its effect on the region's development."
In addition to internships designed to let students further their river-related interests, the program also offers recreational "river days" and more informal trips and activities.
"We'll take a pontoon boat out every now and then, with a few students to examine the pound nets or the beach and marshes across the river," said Broad. "It's good for students to explore the environment they live in."
To reach ROB HEDELT: 540/374-5415 rhedelt@freelancestar.com
