Dam Fieldtrip

It is the end of the school year, so to finish off the year the grade levels go on different "big" field trips. 

On Monday, Austin's class got to go to the old McGaheysville dam.  Once upon a time a dam was there.  As the story goes, about 6 months after it was built a storm came through and it never worked again. 

There were several stations to participate in.

The first one Austin's group did was go in the water and try to catch some macroinvereabrates.  They took a flat net into the water.  Then the stirred up the bottom, and tried to catch the stuff that got stirred up.  The caught some pretty impressive things! 

After this, they went to the tree station where they looked at different trees and different characteristics of the tree.  It was interesting, but I do not think that it was a favorite.

From there we went to a station that talked about the layout of the land.  Looking at a map of the land and what all the markings on the map might mean.  Discussing why certain things were placed where they were.  At this point everyone was getting hungry, so I don't think they enjoyed it as much as they could have.  I found it very interesting.

Then we had lunch.

After lunch, we went to see what they caught from shocking the water that morning.  There were several types of fish and an eel. 

Then we FINALLY got to do the main event.  RAFTING!!!  We, it was me and 4 7th grade boys, climbed into our raft and went about 3 miles down the river.  It was exhausting, but a lot of fun!

I would have loved to get tons of pictures from this trip, but by the end of the day I was totally soaked  and so glad that I did not have my phone with me! 

I do wonder, in 20 years when Austin's wife is reading this, if he will remember what macroinvertebrates are, or will he have to google it?

I know my time is running short on him wanting me to join him on field trips.  I was so glad that I was able to go on this one with him.