Ellis students get up close and personal with bugs

Published 10:03 am Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Every school day, a lot — make that many good things happen at Ellis Middle School, where students and faculty will tell anyone, education is sweet.

One of the most interesting activities occurs when Dr. Dean Hanson, an aquatic entomologist, comes to the Austin Independent School District’s sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade school on Austin’s east side.

When Hanson brings his “water bugs” lab to seventh-grade life science students, it’s an event. Later this week, the seventh-graders will visit the J. C. Hormel Nature Center for an inter-disciplinary event that will include testing the water quality in Dobbins Creek.

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Can anyone interested in the environment say “Sweet?”

Hanson’s visit, taking place this week, is one of the highlights of the early school year.

Not only does he teach the children, but he delivers a message for all to hear: The smallest things in an ecosystem must be protected.

And, Hanson can relate to the students. He was once creature curious just like the students he teaches.

“I grew up along Minnehaha Creek and just turned over rocks in the stream and collected butterflies. I was a bug kid,” he said.

Hanson, who today lives in Stillwater, has been visiting Ellis Middle School for the last 10 years, coordinating his work with teacher Mary Kruger.

The Austin Izaak Walton League of America is a financial supporter of the program for seventh-graders.

Hanson also takes his wet bugs educational program into St. Paul schools. He teaches kindergarten through middle school grades about “aquatic insects,” the more scientific name for wet bugs.

“Wet bugs is just a nickname for aquatic insects and their role in stream ecology. Wet bugs simply describes what they are better known as,” Hanson said.

His first day at Ellis Middle School was Monday, and he will finish today. Eleven classes in all.

“A lot of it is simply what educators call a ‘second domain’ and how they feel toward something like this,” Hanson said. “It’s to teach them acceptance of what’s in the stream, show them what’s there and that they don’t have to be afraid of it.”

“The way I start I say I’m an entomologist and I like to study bugs,” he said of his hands-on style of education.

“I want to teach them they don’t have to be afraid of crayfish, hellgrammites and other water bugs,” he said. “Then, we talk about what they do in the stream and how they keep the water clean and protect the purity of the water and the oxygen content.”

Under the microscope, Hanson shows the students the stone fish, may flies and other insects and their physical makeup.

If it floats on a rock in the bottom of a stream, chances are Hanson has touched it and shared its physiology with students.

Anyone who wants to know about burrowing may flies or the predator helgemite, get Hanson’s attention, and he will tell all.

His goal in making the classroom presentations is simple: “To open doors to our ecosystem.”

“Just to appreciate and know a smidgen of what’s outdoors in our natural ecosystem,” Hanson explained.

What makes his class so special? Hanson knows the answer.

“It’s not looking at preserved insects imbedded in plastic or preserved in formulyn dip and saying ‘Point to the head, point to the thorax, point to the abdomen, because this is going to be on your next test,’” he said. “It’s about showing them this is what’s out there. I say to them ‘Pick it up.’ Most of these kids have never seen a stone fly, never seen a burrowing may fly and certainly never seen a helgemite live before, but here it is.”

“Hopefully, this is a little stepping stone to gain some knowledge,” he said.

Water quality, too

In a classroom next door to the lab used by Hanson is Kruger’s seventh-grade life science class.

They are preparing for an important visit to the nature center to, in part, check the water quality of Dobbins Creek.

Kruger has reason to be excited, also. Not only are they her seventh grade life science students, but her daughter, Elaine Campbell, a water quality specialist with the Mankato office of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, will be joining the students on their trek along stream banks in the nature center.

“When the kids hear about the wet bugs and our Nature Center trip, the kids get real excited, because it’s something they can look forward to experience,” Kruger said.

On Monday, Kruger’s students were conducting water testing in the classroom in preparation for the field trip.

The students chatter among themselves as they conduct the experiments.

At the nature center, there will be seven different inter-disciplinary work stations for the students as arranged by Kruger with help from Larry Dolphin and the nature center staff.

“This is an inter-disciplinary unit,” Kruger explained. “One of the stations will have them analyzing a stream and drawing a conclusion whether or not the water is fit in that stream,” she said. “They will be seeing what critters are in the water.”

“We (Elaine Campbell and Kruger) will be testing the water and doing the chemical party of it,” Kruger said, sounding as excited as her 27 students.

Another work station will have the students take a walk in the nature center’s woods and making observations with their senses and using descriptive words in an exercise that involves language arts.

“It all revolves around water quality,” the teacher said.

Three of the students, Breanna Ritter, Olive McDermott and Braden Eggum, are busy testing water with the indicators provided by Kruger.

All three say they are excited about the water bugs session and nature center field trip.

In another crowded corner of the classroom, Hannah Voogd pauses in the mist of a water quality test to answer some questions.

Hanson’s work, Kruger’s teaching and the students’ willingness to learn combine for a surprise.

Voogd says she wants to study more science classes. “I love science,” she confesses. “It runs in my family. We’re all interested in science.”

And what does she want to do with her life when she grows older?

“I would like to research the natural causes of climate changes,” she said.

Wet bugs, water quality, inter-disciplinary teaching, textbook and hands-on learning and a student who wants to make science her life’s pursuit.

Go ahead, Ellis Middle School. Say it: “Sweet,” as in “awesome” or “cool.”