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Fritz students in fourth and sixth grades cleaned up a section of the East Lampeter Township stream as the first step in creating an outdoor classroom.
The project is a collaboration between fourth-grade teacher Stephanie Carnahan and sixth-grade teacher Kevin Burkholder to make their classes aware of how pollutants in small bodies of waters, such as streams, affect rivers and bays.
Conestoga Valley High School juniors and seniors in Kerrie Snavely's freshwater biology classes also helped collect debris from the stream and taught the fourth-graders about organisms that live in fresh water.
Fourth-grader Victoria McCombs said she's been in the stream behind her school only few times.
"Most of the time we don't get to do this," Victoria said. "I learned a lot about the stream — like that too many minerals can make water hard."
Jeremy Sauder, also a fourth-grader, said he had been measuring the temperature of the water.
"It's pretty cold," Jeremy said. "I also found out that polluting the stream could lead to the extinction of some animals."
The stream flows into the Conestoga River, which empties into Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.
Tuesday was a fitting choice to kick off the project because it was the 38th world observance of Earth Day.
The outdoor classroom will consist of a wooden kiosk with benches. There will be removable maps of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed attached to the kiosk.
The outdoor classroom, which will be built by high school Technology Student Association members, is slated to open in the fall.
The project will cost about $2,000 and was made possible by a grant from the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Carnahan said she hopes the outside classroom will make students want to help preserve wetlands.
"I want students to learn that the survival of the Chesapeake Bay and other bodies of water depend on little streams like this," she said.
Burkholder said one of his goals is to foster teamwork.
"I hope this brings a sense of community and working together to help the environment," he said. "This is a small part of a big picture."
Sixth-grader Noah Kwiat said he was shocked when he recovered such debris as string, bottles and clothing from the stream.
"I really wanted to help clean up," Noah said. "Looking at the stream made me feel dirty. I want to be proud of what's around my school."
Noah said he learned Tuesday that maintaining healthy streams and rivers also means planting trees and keeping livestock out of the water.
"Doing these things can prevent erosion," he said.
Jackson Lennox, a sixth-grader, said he picks up litter in a pond near his home.
"I get rid of all the Coke bottles and soda cans," Jackson said. "Otherwise the water will be dirty and nothing around it will grow."
E-mail: mpennino@lnpnews.com
