I get the feeling a lot of my days are going to begin bright and early around here...so I'll do my best not to start every blog the same way. Today's class was Introduction to Environmental Science with Dr. Carvalho-Knighton. This will serve as my Monday/Wednesday/Friday course. We spent a lot of time outdoors, which I wasn't dressed for. Luckily, when it came time to go in the muddy stream, we had waders! Apparently I fit perfectly in a men's size 7...you can be the judge of that one. I was really surprised by how well the waders actually worked, I came out perfectly clean and dry!
While we were in the water, we used nets to scoop under the vegetation along the sides of the stream. I was originally supposed to take the temperature of the water and collect a water sample, but I ended up using the net a few times too. I missed the initial instructions about not scooping up sediment, but I collected some pretty neat things! My misfortune yielded clams, a crayfish, a random fish, a baby catfish, and a tiny little shrimp. I was pretty pleased with the results!
I've found that I really like learning about plants when I visit new places, and there were tons of new and interesting plants to see today. We saw lots of cattails, cut grass (which is a wild rice), and duckweed. It's pretty amazing to learn about man-made wetlands, and how they can act as tertiary water treatment facilities. I don't want to overwhelm you all with pictures, but there're a lot more where these came from.
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