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Summer
1999
[TEXT ARCHIVE WEB-PUBLISHED MARCH 2002.
ORIGINAL PRINT PUBLICATION DATE: SUMMER 1999.]
Pondering
Ponds
By
Catriona Tait Bowman
Children
and ponds belong together. In recognition of this truth,
Prairie Woods Audubon Society (PWAS), one of the Chicago
Wilderness partners, and School District 15 in Palatine
collaborate on a two-month program called "Pondering
Ponds." Two PWAS teachers, Dell Meiller and Catriona
Bowman, visit every second grade classroom in spring and
prepare the children for a supervised field trip to a pond
in Deer Grove Forest Preserve. A one-hour lecture covers
the animals and plants they are likely to see and stresses
the importance of ponds in the ecosystem. The children also
play a game about food chains and the relationships between
animals and plants in the pond.
There
is a fascination with the still, deep waters of a pond.
A heat haze shimmers in the distance, dragonflies hawk over
the surface on swift, jagged flight paths, and fish jump
open-mouthed into clouds of gnats, leaving behind ever-widening
ripples. Dip a net into some pond weed and marvel at the
myriad wonders that await you. You never know what you'll
find next.
It
may be a six-inch long bullfrog tadpole or a giant water
bug adorned with eggs by his mate. A shy little newt may
wriggle out from the weed. Dragonfly nymphs and crayfish
heave themselves out from the mud and resolutely climb the
sides of the net. Overhead, swifts dart after mosquitoes
and red-tailed hawks cruise the thermals. A great blue heron
stalks majestically in the shallows, and a tiny ruby-throated
hummingbird sucks nectar from the jewelweed. Occasionally
on a sultry afternoon, thunder growls and the frogs all
shout back in defiance.
Back
in their classrooms, the children rear leopard frogs from
eggs. The new science curriculum requires these 'older'
exploratory programs to fuse with new technology and art.
Several schools have set up Web sites to compare their data
with other schools. Students from Kimball Hill School in
Rolling Meadows investigated a polluted pond in their playing
field to compare the inhabitants there with those at Deer
Grove. Many students construct beautiful and detailed collages
to depict pond life, or write poetry and sculpt pond animals
from styrofoam.
Listen
to the voices of the children. They will tell you why ponds
are so fascinating.
Today…
…I
caught the biggest tadpole I ever saw. It was as long as
a new pencil sharpened only once. I can't believe I saw
a tadpole that big!
Kyle — Thomas
Jefferson School
…I
got to hold a frog. I LOVED the duckweed because I got to
play in it. Animals need hiding places from predators.
Caitlin — Lincoln School
…I
saw a heron flying. And how he was flying. I figured out
that he was the biggest animal at the pond. That made me
feel like a cool scientist.
Matthew — Lincoln School
I
liked…
…when
you gently swooped up the little pond life how if you put
them under the magnifying glass, you can see every detail,
every eye, every leg.
Caitlin — Lake Louise School
…that
I saw a skating spider — I felt froggy mud.
Lisa — Winston Churchill School
…the
water snake. It has no feet and is like a noodle that can
move.
David — Thomas Jefferson School
…the
squishy mushy mud.
Keelin — Thomas Jefferson School
…that
Mr. Taylor got lost!
Kalib — Central Road School
…catching
frogs because they make funny noises. I will never damage
a pond in my entire life.
Nicole — Thomas Jefferson School
…the
beetles because most can swim, fly and dive. They are small
and yet they eat meat. And finally, they can be 5 millimeters
long.
Luke — Lincoln School
…the
turtle. He looked really awesome. He came really close to
my group at the shallow end. He swims really fast.
Alex — Lincoln School
Ponds
are important because…
…animals
and other creatures live in the pond and you can't pollute
and you can't wreck their habitat because then they won't
have a home and they would die.
Stacey — Central Road School
…they
are places for water after it rains. They prevent flooding.
Greg — Thomas Jefferson School
…ducks
need to cool off and eat duckweed. Ponds give frogs a place
to sit on lily pads and let people see their reflections
in the water.
Amy — Lake Louise School
Final
words …
…you
should never harm a pond ever because there are animals
to think about in your life too. You should never throw
your garbage in the pond because you are polluting the water.
Savannah — Gray Sanborn School
…the
algae is eaten by plankton which is eaten by insects which
is eaten by frogs or toads which is eaten by some very large
fish like bass and great blue herons.
Conrad — Thomas Jefferson School
…imagine
what the world would be like without ponds. Wouldn't you
feel something was missing?
Matthew — Thomas Jefferson School
Catriona
Tait Bowman has a Ph.D. in Freshwater Entomology, the logical
result of a childhood misspent mucking about in puddles
and keeping bug farms. A displaced Brit, she loves the Chicago
Wilderness for its real people and for the vast horizons
of the prairie, which remind her of the Scottish moors.
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