Who lives in the stream: science for kids
Members of an environmental biology club called the Belyok, which is the first stage of the Growing up at the Aquarium project, are getting ready to take part in the International Ecological Conference “Man and Biosphere”, which is hosted by the Federal Scientific Center of the East Asia Terrestrial Biodiversity FEB RAS (the FSC EATB FEB RAS).
“In preparing for the conference, I have brought the children to the Center of Biodiversity several times: its staff scientists hold sessions with junior biologists,” said Tatyana Chernykh, Principal Specialist of the Environmental Education Service at the Primorsky Aquarium and Head of the Belyok. “During our last visit it was decided to add practice to theory and to explore methods used for field observations of streams.”
The young discoverers were enraptured by kick sampling: from the outside looking in, they may have appeared to be just paddling their feet in the water but in fact, that was how they were collecting benthic animals. During the hands-on session on assessing water samples, the club members learned exactly which animals could serve as indicators of water purity.
“We have taken the kids to the Akademichesky creek, which has been our “testing ground” for many years, and where we teach school children, university students and even kindergartners on how to collect samples, analyze them and assess water quality by surveying organisms living in the stream,” explained Tatiana Vshivkova, Senior Researcher at the Laboratory of Hydrobiology, the FSC EATB FEB RAS.
The Belyok educators expect that the methods the kids have mastered will help them to achieve results that can be presented at the conference. The educators are also planning to incorporate meetings with staff scientists from the Center of Biodiversity into the club curriculum.