First Prize Field Trip

by Charlotte Overby
photography by Jim Rathert

Three students get to trade a day in the classroom for a day outdoors.

Everyone in Misty Rodgers fifth-grade class was taking a science test when Conservation Department education consultant Jay Barber arrived at her classroom. Everyone, that is, except for Misty.

"Are you ready to go?" Jay asked her quietly, not wanting to disturb the test-takers.

Misty nodded and strode into the hallway to join two schoolmates, Daniel Woods and Lindsay Andrée, both sixth graders. Students at Richland Elementary School in Essex, they were about to go on an extraordinary field trip.

Last year, Daniel, Misty and Lindsay participated in their school's Aquatic Poster Contest, sponsored by the Missouri Department of Conservation and coordinated by Jay Barber, who is now Ozarks unit education supervisor. Students were asked to design a 2- by-3-foot color poster showing the many plants and animals that live in a pond or wetland. They also were asked to show how the plants and animals interact, form a food web and rely on the sun for energy.

All the posters were hung in the school hallway and judged for ecological accuracy, originality and artistic presentation. Daniel, Misty and Lindsay were contest winners. Climbing into Jay Barber's van on a beautiful fall day, they were about to collect their prize: a field trip to Wappapello Lake and Mingo National Wildlife Refuge.

Daniel Woods, Misty Rodgers and Lindsay Andree made some new friends on an excursion to Wappapello Lake.

At Wappapello, Jay parked the van near a boat ramp. The students ran down to meet Brad Pobst, fisheries biologist and driver of "the beast," a research boat outfitted with equipment used to electro-shock fish. The equipment sends electricity through the water to temporarily stun fish. They float to the surface and fisheries biologists collect them with hand held nets. They then evaluate the size, health and different species of fish. This information helps them manage a lake's or stream's fish population.

Misty, Daniel and Lindsay had all been to Wappapello before to go swimming, fishing and boating. But none of them had been on this kind of boat before.

"Daniel said he's kind of accident-prone, so I'm watching him!" joked Jay, as the students climbed aboard. Brad Pobst guided the boat to a nearby cove. He turned on the electro-shocking equipment and, soon, several kinds and sizes of fish floated to the surface. Daniel, Lindsay and Misty took turns scooping them out of the water with a net. They were amazed at what they saw, and all three began examining the fish.

"He's got a small head, doesn't he?" observed Daniel. "And that little one," added Misty, "is really pretty."

A lesson about fish scales includes a look at the real thing (top) and a red plastic model (above). Fisheries biologist Brad Pobst described the differences between types of scales.

Jay hunched over their nets, too, identifying the fish and asking the students questions. "There's a sucker," he says. "Now what do you think he eats?"

"Other suckers?" suggests Daniel.

Still at the helm, Brad gives them another clue. He says, "Which way is its mouth pointing?" They looked again at the fish's downward-curved mouth and decided it was a bottom-feeder. "The angle of its mouth lets it eat things along the bottom more easily," points out Jay.

Next, Jay helped them learn to distinguish bluegill from long-ear sunfish. "The only reason I don't like bluegill," says Lindsay, who had caught some once while fishing, "is that their fins are so sharp." They then identified bass and learned that when a bass is 10 to 12 inches long, it's about three years old. They also learned that bass and crappie eat another kind of fish called a gizzard shad.

Jay asks, "And what do gizzard shad eat?"

"Gizzards!" jokes Daniel. "Yea, they go to the grocery store and buy gizzards." Everyone in the boat laughed. Gizzard shad eat small plants and animals that float in the water.

The day ended at Mingo National Wildlife Refuge for a close look at aquatic insects and plants.

They released all the fish except for one small gizzard shad. Jay performed a quick dissection so the students could see the fish's heart and other internal organs. Misty gasped. Lindsay said, "Oh my goodness!" But they all peered closely as Jay taught them about shad anatomy and filter-feeding fish.

Filter feeders remove tiny aquatic animals and plants from the water by passing the water through their specially adapted gills.

"You could go to Botswana-anyplace in the world-and by looking at a fish's gills, you'd be able to tell if it's a filter feeder or not," says Jay.

Brad turned on the electro-shocking equipment once more and up floated a drum. "This is the only freshwater fish in North America that can make a sound," explains Jay. They make a strange grunting or croaking sound, and sometimes people call them "croakers."

The students then collected a black crappie, spotted bass and a largemouth bass. Jay held up the spotted bass and said, "Want to feel its tongue and throat?" The students glanced skeptically at one another. Finally Lindsay stepped forward and gently put her finger in the fish's mouth.

"Can you feel a kind of rough patch back there?" Jay asks her. Lindsay nods yes. "Now feel this one. Do you feel it?"

"Not as much," she replies. Spotted bass have a rough tongue patch and largemouth bass have smoother ones. They identified a few more fish, then let them go.

By noon, the students knew more fisheries biology than many experienced anglers. Suckers, shad, bass, crappie, bluegill-they had them down. Next it was time to make the short drive to Mingo National Wildlife Refuge for a close look at aquatic creatures.

Open up and say, "Aahhh." you can learn a lot by peering down a fish's throat.

From the banks, each student scooped up small buckets of water and plant life. They identified several beetles, a crayfish, algae and lots of different plant material. Daniel pointed to something floating in his specimen tray. Jay came over and announced, "Scuds. What you see here are one of the reasons we have so many ducks here in spring. In the spring, these tiny animals are all over the place. The ducks swim along and just scoop them up."

Sitting at a picnic table, each student placed samples under microscopes. Jay talked about microscopic aquatic animals called zooplankton and protozoa. These life forms are important sources of food for many larger animals.

"Without any of these critters," says Jay, "what would the fish eat? If we wiped out all the zooplankton, what would happen?" Pretty soon, the students discussed food chains and the concept of a web of life-how all living things are interconnected-the theme of their winning posters. By the end of the day, the pictures and concepts they had drawn on their posters had come alive right before their eyes. Not a bad prize, huh?