Elizabethtown students get hands-on science lessons in canoes

ELIZABETH DEORNELLAS | Staff Writer
May 4, 2024
May 4, 2024

Elizabethtown canoe — Buy Now

Elizabethtown High School’s Envirothon team members cheer after catching fish in their net while participating in a day of watershed exploration at Gifford Pinchot State Park in York County Tuesday, April 30, 2024.
BLAINE SHAHAN | Staff Photographer

On one side of York County’s Pinchot Lake beach, two Elizabethtown Area High School students held hands as they ran through waist-deep, cattail-full water, flushing fish toward their teammates’ net.

Across the beach, a cheer arose as a largemouth bass flipped into the competing team’s net.

“It just plopped right into the net,” science teacher Brian Gormont said. “That was pretty sick.”

The competition wasn’t just about seeing which team could more effectively use a net - students inventoried the fish and crustaceans they caught to provide a snapshot of the lake’s health.

“These critters give us a really good long-term idea of the health of the water,” said Katie Brittingham, an educator with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

READ: Outside education and experiences: Scovens sisters spark students’ stewardship of nature

A dozen Elizabethtown students and two teachers joined Brittingham and fellow Chesapeake Bay Foundation educator Adaiah Bauer recently for a day on the water at Gifford Pinchot State Park, designed to provide these Science Club members with a chance to practice their species identification skills and learn more about watershed health.

Elizabethtown Area High School’s Envirothon team canoe trip [photos]

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Pennsylvania Rivers and Streams Program has run hands-on, on-the-water field trips for 54,000 students from across the Bay watershed in the past 30 years, spokesperson B.J. Small said.

The program is targeted toward middle and high school students. Schools pay $400 to participate, and each canoe-based trip can accommodate 26 students, teachers and chaperones. Applications for the fall season are open now through the end of May and can be accessed at lanc.news/CBFriversandstreams.

As the Elizabethtown students rowed canoes across Pinchot Lake, they caught sight of great blue herons, cormorants and a bald eagle. Several students realized that the long stems catching on their paddles looked familiar.

READ: Solanco students help restore hickory trees to Lancaster city

Hydrilla, an invasive underwater herb, is one of the species the students studied during their preparations for the Pennsylvania Envirothon, an academic challenge that tests their knowledge of topics such as aquatic ecology and forestry.

Ella Stricker, a 17-year-old junior, said her involvement with Science Club and Envirothon has opened up a deeper study of science that is preparing her for a potential career as an environmental chemist or glaciologist.

“The sciences that I want to go into, I wouldn’t have been exposed to if it wasn’t for these programs,” Stricker said.

Connecting students with nature

For Margie Reed, this was her 25th trip with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in 27 years of teaching science and sponsoring Elizabethtown’s Science Club.

“I think every kid should get to do this,” Reed said. “I think they learn more from this one day of experience than they ever do in the classroom.”

Reed’s approaching retirement means the late April trip was her last as an official trip lead, and she said she felt a little melancholy leaving the water.

As she watched her students work in teams to carry the 90-pound canoes emblazoned with names like “Tulip Polar” and “Paw Paw” from the launch point back up a hill to their storage rack, Reed remarked on how successfully her Science Club members have formed bonds across social groups.

“They become family,” Reed said.

A classroom setting doesn’t work for every student, Reed said, and Chesapeake Bay Foundation educators can bring to life the importance of caring for local waterways that feed into the Bay.

“Until you see the application for why all of this matters, it won’t stick,” Reed said.