C-H students team up with Ohio school to study ecology
Students from an inner-city school in Akron, Ohio, that is surrounded by more asphalt than green space spent Tuesday in Washington County digging up bugs and studying aquatic ecosystems with seventh-graders at Chartiers-Houston Junior High School.
The 22 students from Ohio came to the area to learn about the critters and environment near the Chartiers-Houston school, while teaching the local kids the science behind surface temperatures.
It was a chance for students from two different environments to expand their knowledge about ecology and nature after spending time Skyping with each other in the classroom.
“Both of the schools will be learning a lot,” Chartiers-Houston student Allie Smith said. “We’re teaching them about nature and the critters in the soil. They’re teaching us more about the (surface) temperatures because that’s what they can do.”
She and her classmates were digging up soil just outside the junior high school and studying the worms and insects living in the ground. The Ohio students were going to spend time showing the local kids how to study surface temperatures in the asphalt parking lot and how that relates to the environment.
“We’re all learning,” student Emily Georgetti said. “They’re in the middle of the city, so we’re learning from them and they’re learning from us.”
And that was the point of the daylong exercise, according to C-H junior high school science teacher Gary Popiolkowski. He agreed to partner with Akron science teacher Steve Frantz to expand the students’ views of their surroundings. He also thought it might be a great warm-up for the Chartiers-Houston students before their upcoming trip to Olgebay Park in Wheeling, W.Va.
“It’s an exciting day for us,” Popiolkowski said. “It’s something none of us has done before.”
Of course, that meant giving the Akron students a crash course on the different local plants in this area.
“I don’t know if they’ve seen garlic mustard or honeysuckle. What’s the first thing you tell them about?” Popiolkowski asked the Chartiers-Houston students.
“Poison ivy!” the students shouted in unison.
A few minutes later, Emma Camps was filling a small bucket of water from a stream with her teammates to test the pH levels. While filling the container, they spent a few minutes before the Akron students arrived talking about the importance of wearing long pants and proper footwear to ensure they didn’t bring ticks back home with them to Ohio.
“This might seem normal to us, but not to them,” Emma said. “I’m sure some of them might go into the woods, but not very often.”