ECWA Works with Local High Schoolers

ECWA’s educational work with high school students at the Durham Public School’s new Performance Learning Center (dplc.dpsnc.net), currently in the basement of Northgate Mall, began in April. On Tuesday, April 15th, nine students and their science teacher, Chris Ristoff, piled into Frank Ferrell’s (9th St. Bakery) bio diesel bus for a tour of the watershed. After introductions from Larry Brockman about the watershed and Q & A with Frank about the bio diesel bus and bio-fuels, the tour got underway with an impromptu rap from the "boys in the back" about “cruising the environment in the Bio-Bus” (Bio Bus Rap Video - Please be patient - This is a large (1.75MB) .AVI file that will download and play on your pc).

At the 17 Acre Woods Preserve, under guidance from Cynthie Kulstad, ECWA’s Preserve Manager, students observed the woods closely, learned about the poultice Native Americans made from jewel weed to treat exposure to poison ivy, and had a very close encounter with a pair of mallard ducks down in the creek bed. Another highlight of the tour was the trek out to the heron rookery near ECWA’s Glennstone Preserve. With money from a REI Grant that supports this project, ECWA was able to purchase 10 pairs of binoculars, which enabled each student to use a pair while visiting the heron rookery. All the students were very quiet, very observant, taking in the great nesting birds and the basking turtles, showing each other how to focus the binoculars on what they were seeing. For a picture tour click on www.flickr.com/photos/25905617@N04/

On two upcoming Tuesdays, we’ll be out with the students again, this time at Pearl Mill Preserve. They’ll be learning about invasive plant species as they cut and pull with Cynthie, and about water quality through in-stream sampling of macroinvertebrates and more with Laura Webb Smith from the city’s Storm Water Services. Anyone interested in supporting this effort or joining us for the second date, Tuesday, May 13th is welcome. Just e-mail Kim Curtis at kcurtis@duke.edu.