Four-year-old scientists? Yes!
(Volunteer Ann Dunbar helped students measure a torso in centimeters)
Story by Judy Pickens
Photos by Tom Trulin
Special to West Seattle Blog
Students from the Urban Nature Preschool got a taste of scientific research on Thursday when they did the annual survey of stonefly exoskeletons in lower Fauntleroy Creek.
As nymphs, stoneflies are a major food source for juvenile coho. Mature stoneflies crawl out of the water in the spring and leave their exoskeletons behind as they take flight, and students have been counting and measuring them since 2000. Their findings are a way to track both quantity of food available to the fish and how clean the water is.
(Finding exoskeletons on bridges required close examination)
With the school’s outdoor focus, the four-year-olds already knew a lot about the creek and, with support from teachers and volunteers, they were up to the challenge of following study protocol. Three teams closely examined trees and bridges while a fourth measured torsos as adults recorded the numbers.
(Volunteer Ann Dunbar helped students measure a torso in centimeters)
After teams reported their findings, volunteer Alana Khayat added the numbers to line graphs so students could see how they compared to findings since 2015.
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