Water Watchers Fieldtrip

I was asked to be a parent volunteer for Justice's 5th grade Water Watcher's Fieldtrip. It was pretty awesome! We had a lot of fun. It's put on by the Water Quality Protection District of the City of Helena.
We started the morning out with a bus ride up to Rimini Road [2396 National Forest Development Road 218, Helena National Forest] to a campground near the Ten Mile Creek. I believe it's called Moose Creek Campground. It is Beautiful an only about 20 minutes from Helena!!!



The class was divided into 3 groups- Mrs. Siroky took one group, Mr. Gary Burton, from Water Watchers took a group and I took the last group. Each group did a different activity. Then we rotated.
1- Ten Mile Creek Stream Monitoring- Water Quality (The Chemistry of the stream)
2- Ten Mile Creek- Stream Investigations (The Physical Properties of the Stream)
3-Riparian Scavenger Hunt (The Biology of the Stream)

I was in charge of the Scavenger Hunt. We found things like moss with wet feet, horsetails, a leaf bigger than your hand, white and red berries, a root cage, and the bathroom [everyone needed a potty break by the time they got to me. LOL].
Here's some of the things we found:

At the Campsite there was a water pump. You had to have one person pump while one person held up this little lever just so that one person could get a drink. I think it was the kids favorite part!

Next, we headed down the road a bit to a Picnic area for a short hike. They dropped the kids off at different spots along the trail to sit quietly and observe nature. They had to fill out a journal with things like sounds they heard, writing poems about something natural that caught their attention, different textures they could rub on their paper, and drawing a hawk-view map of where they sat. It was neat!

After the hike, they gave the kids some time to eat lunch and goof around at the Picnic area. Then they hopped back on the bus to visit the next place.

Our final stop was to the Helena Wastewater Treatment Plant. Let's just say- STINKY and informative. LOL

Thanks Justice for letting me join you!