Living Streams: Environmental Center Programs – Part I of IV

This begins a series of four posts outlining some of the programs offered at the center. There are more and your group can define your own, too. The Oscar C. Dunn Rotary Environmental Center welcomes day camps and overnight stays.

Camp ASCCA Environmental Education Programs

Camp ASCCA offers excellent “hands on” programs that are a unique combination of supervised instruction and self guided discovery. Classes are conducted on-site utilizing the beautiful 230 acres including streams, forest, pond, Lake Martin, and the newly completed Dunn Environmental Center. Programs are customized to each group’s level and compliment the Alabama Course of Study in both Science and Social Studies. Instructors include ASCCA staff as well as professional volunteers from organizations such as Lake Watch of Lake Martin, Alabama Forestry Association, Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and Auburn University Department of Curriculum and Teaching.

Living Streams

The Living Streams program offers young people a hands-on opportunity to learn how to assess water quality in streams by the presence or absence of certain aquatic insects (benthic macroinvertebrates or “bugs”). The session begins at streamside with a discussion of how the stream fits into the watershed concept and how macroinvertebrates are tolerant or intolerant of pollution using a picture guide to help with their identification. Students then spend 30-45 minutes in the stream using special nets to collect macroinvertebrates that live in the water. Next they conduct a streamside assessment by identifying the macroinvertebrates and placing them into specific categories using universally accepted biological techniques. The session closes with a discussion of what the “bug message” is concerning the water quality of the stream and what types of human actions adversely affect our water.

Tomorrow, Project Learning Tree…