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YMCA day-campers work with scientists to learn about water ecology and invasive species. Staff photos Brian Larsen
Color crayons and chemistry came together last Wednesday, June 21, as 30 children from the Cook County YMCA met with scientists and educators to learn about water chemistry and biological invasive species that can harm the lake and people, plants and fish that swim in the water.
The group met on the beach by the Lake Superior Trading Post for several hours of learning and fun.
The kids, ages 5-9, collected samples of algae and water as they got a first-rate primer on water ecology taught by scientists from the Science Museum of Minnesota.
Marie Leland from the St. Croix Watershed Research Station located in Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota, was helping students look through the microscope. At the same time, Mark Edlund, lead researcher, taught kids how to get samples ready to study under a microscope.
Mark asked one budding scientist if she could pronounce a word he had written down on a piece of paper. It was a big word, six letters or so, and the kindergartner responded that she didn’t know how to read. Oh well, the lesson went on, and she asked a lot of great questions!
Meanwhile, Sara Claus, studying for her Master’s degree at the University of Minnesota Duluth, led kids wearing oversized rubber, water-proof boots on a mission to find samples of rock snot. Or, as scientists call it, Didymospenia geminate, a microscopic invasive algae found in water that forms stalks that mat on hard surfaces and attaches to plants. The kids in the much-too-large rubber boots did an excellent job of finding samples of Didymo, another shorter name for the yucky algae.
Researchers working at the St. Croix Watershed Research Station aim to find ways to improve water quality and reduce pollution in lakes and rivers. A good way to aid their research is to teach kids and adults what to look for and report it to them.
Anne Braatas, Executive director of Minnesota’s Children Press, led the YMCA crew of ambitious children. When the children weren’t busy peering through a microscope or snagging samples from the lake, they were writing Love Letters to Lake Superior on a picnic table, better defined as the Letteracy Deck. The letters often came with colorful artwork.
Armed with scientific knowledge of the lake’s water quality and threats posed to it, the children’s love letters to Lake Superior were aimed to engage and educate people of all ages as they advocate ways for protecting Lake Superior ecosystems from environmental harm.
What is the Letteracy Deck?
Anne Brataas originated the concept. She explains the project this way: “Letteracy Deck’s sole purpose is to provide people of all ages a free seat for the best view of Lake Superior in town where they may unplug from screens devices and pause and reflect and connect through handwritten letters and drawings. We encourage all to dwell in beauty and be better people for it, which is why we also call Letteracy Deck a Kindness Commons.”
What’s next for the kids? Anne was asked.
Jolly Ologies: Children in Minnesota Children’s Press’s summer Story Scouts program associated with the YMCA will use the scientific knowledge they have gained from their Lake Superior Love Letters as a springboard to meet the goal of the Library Friends of Cook County: offering active, outdoor, environmental education that encourages reading and writing. The end product will be a public education book on didymos and many other scientific aspects of the lake’s environment that are scientific disciplines that all end with the syllables “-ologies.”
So, says Anne Brataas, “Because field science outdoors, and especially by Lake Superior, is fun, we’ll have a tour of many of the ologies I studied in graduate school, and our end product will be a child-authored and child-illustrated book on it. Among the Lake Superior science-ologies, children will learn about our limnology, ichthyology, malacology, aquatic entomology, zoology, microbiology, palynology, bryology, geology, glaciology, climatology, theology, mycology, and phycology.”
Generous grants make programming possible
With the generous support from the Blandin Foundation Leadership the Blandin Foundation Leadership Boost Grant in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, and the Library Friends of Cook County, Minnesota Children’s Press launched three summer-long projects to engage Cook County YMCA Day Camp children in active, outdoor, environmental learning with water quality scientists for the Science Museum of Minnesota.
The programs, Letteracy Deck, Love Letters to a Lake, and Jolly Ologies, started June 21 with Science Museum of Minnesota water scientists working with Cook County YMCA Day Camp kids on harbor water sampling at the Letteracy Deck located on the south side of the Lake Superior Trading Post.
“Blandin Foundation Leadership Boost Grants were launched to encourage Minnesotans living in rural and Tribal communities to be visionary and creative as they move their communities forward after two years of snowballing challenges,” said Sonja Merrild, director of rural grantmaking a Blandin Foundation.
“The last two years of complex crisis have taken a toll on leaders across rural Minnesota. In times like this, of great challenge and opportunity, the resilience and fortitude of rural people and places shine through. Yet, we recognize the critical need for more resources to move small communities from where they are to where they want to go.”
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