The Age of Exploration and Discovery

During lunchtime the other day, I stopped by our Bayscapes demonstration garden in front of the Museum, to weed the Black-Eyed Susans. Bayscapes features native plants of Virginia that residents can use in their home landscaping which also improve water quality in the James River and Chesapeake Bay. After removing a handful of weeds, I looked up for a moment at the hundreds of flowers moving back and forth to rhythm of the wind, and was immediately transported back in time.
“Put your crayons away, and place your drawings underneath your desks. Now line up. We’re going outside to take a walk.”
It wasn’t recess time, so why were we going outside for a walk, I thought? Behind the school, my classmates and I walked in single file (more or less) following Mrs. Folkes, our first grade teacher, past the swing sets, the seesaws, the monkey bars, and across the dusty, red clay baseball field, and finally down to the edge of an open meadow adjacent to the forest woods.
Stopping at some Black-Eyed Susans hosting a couple of honeybees, Mrs. Folkes said,
“Look. What do you see?”
Without hesitation, Susan said “Two honeybees on a flower.”
“Right” said Mrs. Folkes. “What kind of flowers?”
Billy, who lived on a farm, said “Those are Black-Eyed Susans.”
“Correct. Very good, Billy. Now who can tell me what the bees are doing?”
Even though I didn’t know that particular flower, I knew what honeybees were, and what they were doing on the flowers. My dad had answered the same question when I saw some honeybees on the flowers of bean and tomato plants in his garden just two months earlier. And so, I raised my hand and said “They’re pollinating the flowers so fruits will form.”
“Very good’ said Mrs. Folkes, who reiterated the relationship between bees and flowers to the rest of the class.
As we walked, she stopped every couple of steps or so, and said “this is Queen Anne’s lace, this is an oak tree… this, an elm… here’s a maple… this is moss… look at that six-lined skink… there’s a Monarch butterfly, a bumble bee, carpenter bee, garden spider, broomsedge, and the like. “These grasses were here when the Native Americans lived here. You know, you can still find their arrowheads in the earth.”
Not only did she help us to identify all of these animals and plants, but related one or another to others, and to the history of the area. This was the beginning of a journey of exploration and discovery. Mrs. Folkes was empowering us to see, observe behaviors of insects, and to enjoy the great outdoor classroom. I was seeing and discovering for the first time the great fabric of life. The takeaway message for me that day was that I was an explorer, and could identify new species of plants and animals, things I had never seen before or had not noticed in my previous five years of life. Maybe I had, but they didn’t register with me then. But now, they did (thank you Piaget). And I couldn’t get enough.
Being raised in a traditional Greek family where history and stories are conveyed through either Greek or English language, but often in sentences beginning with Greek or English and ending with the alternate language, small children learn the stories of the Greek gods and goddesses at an early age. And so, at six years old, not really knowing how to distinguish the real world from that of mythology, I thought my first grade teacher, Mrs. Folkes, was actually the Greek goddess, Gaia, who had transformed herself to reveal her divine being. It was magical.

My first grade teacher, goddess or not, did a wonderful thing that day. She made a lifelong impression on me. She showed me how to “see” the natural world, how it was interconnected, and also how to be part of it. And that’s been one of my lifelong endeavors…Helping people not to just look at the world, but to see it as it really is, not what we’ve been told to believe it is, or how we think it is.
And so, I ask you… what, how and where were the beginnings of your age of exploration and discovery?

Eugene G. Maurakis, Ph.D.
Director of Science and Museum Scientist
Science Museum of Virginia

Day 4: Nature in the City

(Or, “another day, another macroinvertebrate”)

We loaded up and headed off deep into the wilds of… Alexandria.

Traffic wasn’t too bad! We made decent time getting to the Cameron Run, a 4th order stream in an industrial area with a LOT of human impacts. Think runoff and flooding, channelization, sewage and pollutants (ick.) But many of our fishies and bugs are resilient: even in these rather cruddy conditions, some organisms thrive.



Our first survey of the day was at a section of the Cameron Run between two railway bridges. The lower bridge has a definite Planet of the Apes post-apocalyptic feel, complete with overgrown vine-girded tunnels.



By now, everyone knows the routine. We suited up, grabbed gear, and hopped into the Cameron Run.


We electrofished.

We found lots of fish… there were many larger fish in this stream.

We measured and recorded physical and chemical characteristics.



We searched (and searched) for macroinvertebrates; we found lots of worms.


Oh, and we hung out under a bridge.

After visiting the animal shelter to avail ourselves of the restrooms (and to make goo-goo eyes at the kittens) we hopped into the truck and the van and headed for our second site, the 3rd-order Holmes Run.




This creek is in a park, but still has many of the same issues as the Cameron Run. There are sewage and storm drain outfalls dumping into it. Upstream, the banks are clad in concrete, turning the streambed into a giant culvert. The water here is smelly and the rocks are coated with algae.




We did shocking-ID-counting-measuring-recording-collecting. There are environmental problems in this waterway, but some animals can live here. This shallow, cobble-strewn creek just can’t support a very diverse community. We found just a few species of small fishes and inverts (Gene and I have found this pattern each time we’ve sampled this site!)

After packing up the gear for the last time, tired and grubby and hungry, we went to my favorite restaurant, El Tipico, for a late but well-appreciated lunch.


Terry is afraid that the starving Deborah may eat her...


Jeanine is having a cheese malfunction...


And Amy is just glad that she could wash the amoebas off her hands!

Another evening of talking and planning and sharing resources and stories… but for some reason we were all so exhausted that we headed off to bed by 10:00. Maybe it has something to do with staying up until after 1:00 the night before…?

Day three: in the creek! posted by Steve Fenchell

The morning began with a quick dash for coffee at the local Starbucks. After some light conversation about our personal teaching positions we headed out at approximately 8:30 am. We met with Kaitlyn and Chris from the SCA at the National Park, for the second day, to continue our monitoring of the pristine streams found in Prince William County.

Shortly after we drove to our first stream, which was a level two. We began electrofishing and exploring for more macroinvertebrates. We found many organisms, thanks to Gene helping us improve our techniques.

From this stream, we gathered for a brief lunch then we were quickly out to explore our next stream.

Mid-day we arrived at our boundary stream and were greeted by quite a potent odor...
After a short walk through a thorny "path", we turned around... thanks Gene... to find a reasonable opening to the stream. We were already suited up and began trekking through the slippery stream trying to balance ourselves and catch the many small fish getting zapped.

Splash!!! Jeanine took a spill, but luckily she was quickly back on her feet with the electroshocking pack. We found about 14 species of fish, switched out the waders and began digging for more macroinvertebrates. Many small critters, until Lee came across a Helgrammite that would give anyone the creepy crawlies... straight out of a 50's horror film.

After packing up, we headed back to the hotel to sort and ID. We were all able to preserve some representative inverts to show our students, then we cleaned up, and headed out for dinner. We decided on a small Thai restaurant, but were surprised with a "Closed Due to the Economy" sign. We walked to the Japanese restaurant next door, and were in for a great treat... Lee was the champ again as he caught some flying shrimp right in his mouth (others were close).

After dinner we decided to take a look at the used-book store, remember your 3-Rs! After a few great finds (I bought a collection of essays about global water issues and another Michael Pollan book) we headed back for a group discussion and a little social time!

Day Two:first day in the Field. Dana D'Agostino posting

Our first day in the field saw us piling into the caravan of vehicles, headed for Prince William Forest Park. We pulled off next to the stream and gathered our gear; waders, dip nets, pH meter, clipboards and the backpack electroshocker.

We trooped through the woods to our first test site; a third order stream. The weather was hot and humid, with a few clouds in the sky. We all made sure to cover ourselves with bug spray and sunscreen. Gene and his crew began our expedition by working downstream, shocking and collecting the fish.

Summer's group trailed behind, collecting physical parameters including stream depth, pH, stream width and stream flow. We recorded our data and moved downstream, collecting at three separate sites. While this site is considered "pristine", we made note of debris that littered the stream, including glass and plastic on the banks.

Everyone was fascinated by the variety of fish caught in our nets. Using the dip nets, we traipsed through the water, swishing and swirling, attempting to gather as many macroinvertebrates as we could. Specimens were transferred to collection jars, to be identified later.

Following a short break, we switched teams and began surveying a second order stream. It was interesting to note the difference in diversity between the two streams. Fewer species were found in the second order vs. the third order. The stream was also narrower and the flow was a bit slower.

By 12:30, we were ready to call it a day and head off in search of food. We went to Wegman's and indulged ourselves in the great variety of choices; sushi, pizza, subs, Chinese and Thai buffet, panini, salads, etc. Once our hunger was satiated, we piled back into the vehicles to return to our hotel.

In the breakfast room at the Holiday Inn, we laid out our tools to ID our macroinvertebrates. Pans, dissecting scopes, forceps and probes along with several liters of isopropyl alcohol. Specimens were sorted into trays and then identified with the aid of the dissecting scopes and Gene's expertise.

Dinner was at the local Mexican restaurant. Everyone enjoyed the tacos, burritos, enchiadas and salsa. Our waitress appeared to be a neophyte; she seemed flummoxed by the large group of people and kept running back and forth fetching ice and drinks and things she forgot.

Back to the hotel to listen to our guest speaker; Laura Grape from the North Virginia Regional Comission (http://www.novaregion.org/index.aspx?NID=8) She spoke to us about global warming and land use with an emphasis on sea level rise. How will residents deal with a projected rise in sea level of up to 5'? Will insurance rates rise so much that no one will be able to afford to live on the coastline? Will properties be abandoned as more and more coastline is gobbled up by the rising water levels?

After a verrrrry long day, we all bid each other good night and headed off to our respective rooms. Another long day awaited us in the morning and we needed to catch up on our sleep in order to be ready for more field work the next day.

Notes from Northern VA: Deborah and Terry reporting

A picture (or 5) really is worth a thousand words. Wish everyone could have seen the look on our faces when Dr. Maurakis (Gene) told us about the cautionary tales of those "brain eating amoeba" - Naegleria fowleri - that inhabit low level waters at temps of approx 78 degrees. Nice thoughts for our outing tomorrow and our introduction to electrofishing in Prince William Forest Park. Those pictures will certainly tell a story.

Today though we arrived (settled into our swanky new digs) and began to answer some of the aforementioned questions as to why we are here:

“I’m going to Woodbridge because I want to hang out with other teachers…” The best way to get to know each other was finding out what we already do by way of environmental studies and green practices personally & professionally. Steve takes the "less is best" approach by living in a one room studio where he has no trouble remembering to turn off the lights when he leaves a room & where he can't water a lawn b/c he doesn't have one.

“…and experience the natural world in a new way…” Today this meant viewing a turtle or catfish in a tank in one of our participant's labs (the rest of us can only dream of such a tank and lab in our schools) or eating lunch in the setting of a concrete courtyard? Where's the nature? Oh, we must be it. “I’ll spend a lot of time stuck in traffic…” Not today actually - everyone seemed to stay home b/c of the heat “and thinking about how I could use this mark and recapture lesson…” Can they eat the population? Only if they're the Goldfish that come in a cardboard carton….

“Dr. M’s study will establish a baseline for climate change…” that might include how to warm up a classroom designed for 30-40 students w/ only 12 people in it? “and I’ll get help from Summer to develop a proposal for my own study…” like a grant for a lab like Bryan's in the CENS (Center for Environmental and Natural Sciences!) “I’ll learn about so many things: fish and invertebrates and stream characteristics and maps and human impacts and”….and the brain eating amoeba.

“The best thing about this project will be (stuff) I’ll take home…” such as a planimeter for measuring distances of streams on a map…”and meeting new people, and free meals…" off to a great start w/ an excellent dinner out at Macaroni Grill & conversation ranging from experiences w/ students in environmental sciences - to the human impact of folks like Octomom and the Duggars - to the finer points of living w/ grizzlies and navigating NOVA traffic. “I’ll get resources…” such as a laminated/field tested Insect & Crustacean ID Card… “and I’ll do things I’ve never done before!” Like put ink dots on both sides of very small navy and pinto beans.

Above all else today we met Summer Schultz & Dr. Gene Maurakis, two scientists who truly are dedicated to their altruistic cause of providing information about the effects of climate change on our inland waterways. To make the cause even more worthwhile, they are willing to engage us as teachers in providing the tools for a whole new generation to keep up their work. Do they know what they're in for? They say teachers make the most challenging students. Do we know what we're in for? My guess is not a clue, judging by the first class treatment we have received. Could it be they are making these first impressions so positive so as to ward off any further misgivings we might have about standing about in water w/ electroshock sticks while avoiding droplets of amoeba contaminated water as we flee flailing from the stream? Stay tuned to see what answers tomorrow brings.

Deborah Andersen & Terry Milton