November 25, 2014 — When 20 teachers participated in an educator workshop, organized by NOAA Fisheries and partners earlier this fall, they got much more from it than they expected. They had a rare opportunity to see threatened and endangered species in the wild!
When 20 teachers participated in an educator workshop, organized by NOAA Fisheries and partners earlier this fall, they got much more from it than they expected. They had a rare opportunity to see threatened and endangered species in the wild!
The highlight of this particular workshop at the Presquile National Wildlife Refuge was a boat ride where educators witnessed several five to six foot, approximately 80-120 pound sturgeon (can reach up to 14 feet and weigh up to 800 pounds) leap out of the water, much like whales! They also had a chance to learn from scientists about their field work. Researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University were on another boat measuring sturgeon. They attached external tags to four male Atlantic sturgeon to track their movements.
Onshore educators also had a chance to try activities taken from the SCUTES1 elementary education kit. SCUTES stands for Students Collaborating to Undertake Tracking Efforts for Sturgeon. It is an educational effort involving NOAA Fisheries and other partners. The first exercise focused on how sturgeon use their sense of smell to find their natal2 rivers. Another exercise used yarn to weave a food web and introduced factors (i.e., a harmful algal bloom) that can affect the food chain. The final exercise demonstrated how a paleontologist collects and uses data in the examination of a scute fossil casting.
"I absolutely loved everything we did that day,” said Rebecca Kazio, a seventh grade Earth Science teacher. “I am excited to begin incorporating my new acquired knowledge and passion about sturgeon into my classroom.”