On what felt like the first real spring day in April, 8th graders from Rugby Middle splashed around in the Mills River at Mills River Park, stirring up dirt and rocks.
Part of the annual “Kids in the Creek” program organized by the Henderson County Soil & Water Conservation District, students were learning how to find, identify, and analyze a stream’s macroinvertebrates to determine water quality.
Regina Goldkuhl, MountainTrue water quality administrator and Americorp member, instructed students to hold up kick nets in the water, while their classmates disturbed the riverbed upstream with their feet.
“They’re sampling for macroinvertebrates…that live in the stream under rocks,” Goldkuhl explained. “Based on what kind of bugs we find and how many bugs we find, it’ll indicate stream health and water quality,” she said. “The bugs are indicators.”
At stations nearby, students picked out mayfly and dragonfly nymphs, caddisfly larva, and other organisms to identify under microscopes. Based on their findings, Goldkuhl asked students if they thought the Mills River was clean. They seemed to think so.
“There are a lot of agriculture farms so there are some pollutants, but it’s still pretty good,” Goldkuhl said. “It gets filtered downstream and that’s where Asheville and Hendersonville get their drinking water,” she told students.
At other stations, students tested soil samples, learned about the water cycle and water filtration, and learned about recycling’s impact on water quality.
Across the park from the river, students took on the roles of caddisfly larva, stonefly nymphs, rat-tailed maggots, and water pollutants, as played “Macroinvertebrate Mayhem.”
“They’re simulating what happens when there are stressors in the stream,” said Caroline Wicker of the Henderson County Soil & Water Conservation District.
As she handed out lanyards with cards indicating different macroinvertebrates, she told students, “Some are tolerant species, some are intolerant, and some can kind of go either way.”
The students lined up and tried to run to the other side of the playing field, while two students playing “sediment” tagged them out. Some students were slowed down by their macroinvertebrates’ hindrances; students playing a caddisfly had to hop and gasp for breath every five hops, since their macroinvertebrate was intolerant of low oxygen levels.
April Hoyt, conservationist and education coordinator for the Henderson County Soil & Water Conservation District, said the organization has been holding “Kids in the Creek” days for local 8th graders for the past 9 years, and it’s grown thanks to the partnership of local organizations.
In addition to MountainTrue, the outdoor science field trip was made possible thanks to the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service, N.C. Wildlife Commission, N.C. Division of Soil & Water, the cities of Hendersonville and Asheville, Mills River Parks and Recreation, Mills River Partnership, Greenworks, Farm Service Agency, and Water Cookies.
Kendra Henry, English teacher at Rugby, said she’s chaperoned multiple “Kids in the Creek” days over the years and, “It has evolved into an impressive science field trip. It’s one of my favorite days of the year.”
“This field trip is phenomenal. (Students) are engaged the whole day – it’s so hands on,” she said. “It’s how science should be.”
– By Molly McGowan Gorsuch
Public Information Officer
