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Chasco Students Conduct A Study In Nature

Tribune photo by FRED BELLET

Kristin Sluder, 14, an eighth-grader at Chasco Middle Schoo, tests a water sample for nitrates at the Werner Boyce Salt Springs State Park. Some 30 Chasco Middle students were participating in a state-sponsored outdoor science lab.

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By RONNIE BLAIR

rblair@tampatrib.com

Published: January 28, 2009

PORT RICHEY - Kristin Sluder wore rubber gloves and a serious look as she measured the nitrates in a water sample dipped from a drainage ditch along the northern edge of Werner Boyce Salt Springs State Park.

The water appeared dirty, but Kristin, a 14-year-old Chasco Middle School student, shrugged that off as she went about her task.

"It's fun," she said.

That day, Kristin's science class had gone outdoors. She and more than 30 other Chasco Middle students took part last week in the state Department of Environmental Protection's Learning in Florida's Environment program.

"It's better than class," Kristin said. "There are more distractions in class."

The students are among the lucky few statewide involved in the outdoor science lab, also known as Life, that gives them hands-on experience learning science concepts, methods and skills.

The Life site at Werner Boyce Salt Springs State Park is one of 12 statewide, and Chasco Middle eighth-graders are the only students in Pasco County participating.

It's an excellent experience for them, said Carol Pigeon, head of the school's science department.

"A lot of these kids don't get outdoors," she said.

Mark Butler, an environmental education resources teacher for the school district, oversees the program, setting up the experiments and tests the students conduct at the 4,000-acre park.

The Werner Boyce Salt Springs State Park lends itself well to environmental science lessons because of the variety of habitats there, including a salt marsh, mangroves and pine flatwoods.

Toby Brewer, the park manager, was involved in the effort to get the program awarded to Werner Boyce and was on hand last week to greet the students.

The program is financed partially through DEP's Florida Springs Initiative; as a result, many of the field labs the students participate in relate to water issues, Butler said.

That's why Kristin and some of her classmates were testing water samples from the stormwater drainage ditch at one of three experimental stations set up at the park Friday.

Using special testing kits, the students measured for salinity, dissolved oxygen, temperature, nitrates, phosphates and pH. They also tossed a Secchi disk into the ditch to measure the water's clarity.

While about a dozen students were at the ditch, another group hiked into the woods to take soil samples and check soil horizons, which are the different layers. The students noted the color of each layer and whether it was wet, damp or dry. They also checked texture and determined whether each layer was sand, silt, clay or topsoil.

A third group of students was elsewhere in the park involved in a navigation lesson that involved instruments such as a compass and a GPS system.

The students rotated among the three stations every 50 minutes or so.

Last week's excursion was the second for Chasco Middle. A group from the school also visited the park in December, and another trip is planned for April.

Right now, 120 eighth-graders are participating in Life and will continue through the school year.

In the fall, the plan is for Pasco's Life program to evolve into something different from the other programs across the state. The program will follow a team of five teachers and their students for three years as the students progress from sixth to eighth grade.

The DEP created Life in 2004. Since then, about 5,000 students statewide have participated.

Although the program calls for carefully planned lessons, nature sometimes supplies its own learning agenda.

That happened in the cool of a morning last week when Butler discovered a small jawbone as he led some of the students down a grassy path toward the drainage ditch.

For a moment, Butler put water sampling on hold as he quizzed the students about the find. Was the animal a meat eater or a plant eater, he asked.

The sharp back teeth revealed it was a carnivore.

Then Butler had the students guess the animal's identity based on the size of the jawbone and their knowledge of the animals that live in the area. One possibility was a bobcat, though it more likely was a domestic cat, Brewer said.

Butler handed the jawbone to Jasmine Melvin, 14, who said she planned to take it home as a decoration for her pet turtle's terrarium.

Jasmine said the trip to Werner Boyce Salt Springs State Park was a nice change of pace from the typical school day.

"It's cool," she said. "We learn a lot of things. We get to do stuff we don't get to do in class."

Reporter Ronnie Blair can be reached at (813) 948-4218.

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