Rhymin’Reason Experience Earthwatch Rich and Tonya Mandl investigate the world beyond the books This July found your favorite tuneful teachers skin diving in two inches of glacial water, playing pack mule to backpacks and boxes full of scientific equipment and gear, scrubbing slime off rocks, and counting lots and lots and lots of tiny fish, among other crusades. Why? All in the name of science, of course, and that name is Earthwatch.

Earthwatch is a non-profit organization that monitors environmental, animal, and social concerns worldwide. Volunteer teams can shepherd leatherback turtle hatchlings in the Virgin Islands, track Bengal tigers in Asia, study castle restoration in England, and participate in countless other expeditions that challenge the imagination. Anyone is welcome, but only educators and students are eligible for award grants; others must pay their way. Expeditions vary from one to two weeks.

We applied for and were awarded a grant (courtesy of the Ahmanson Foundation, an Earthwatch benefactor) to study Coho salmon fry on the tributaries of the Skagit (pronounced Skajit) and Sauk river of Snohomish county, Washington, and what role the tributary junctions play in species biodiversity and population. Our scientific prize package covered the cost of the research, plus room and board, a three bedroom house in Darrington that we shared with nine other Earthwatchers (extra-curricular Bocce tournaments and local bluegrass festival not included).

An Earthwatch expedition is led by principal investigators, in our case, Doctors Peter Kiffney and Correigh Greene, who work with NOAA and National Marine Science Federations. Three other teachers, a high school student, and a chemist rounded out our volunteer team, with an undergrad and masters student assisting the two P.I.s. Volunteers were trained to measure creek temperature, velocity, and depth, bank gradients, identify fish and water larvae, conduct benthic surveys, tally substrate and woody debris, and tag Coho fry for study and tracking. Lazy vacation it wasn’t, but invigorating work it was. Every creek bend held a new mystery to solve, every pool a secret community to examine. Add to the two week adventure lab work and data collation—extracting the filamentous algae onto sterile filters and entering hard copy into computer banks—and the result is that yours truly learned more in two weeks than either of us did in four years of high school science.

Here’s the reason: Hands on. It’s as simple as that. We learn by doing, and fortunately, educators are awakening to that fact, and working to make it the rule of the classroom, indoors and out. The old days of “sit and listen” science are numbered, thanks to Earthwatch.

So want to make teaching more experiential instead of pedantic? Looking for new lesson ideas? (or songs?—keep your ears peeled at our fall AEOE gig, folks.) Then on your way from www.rhyminreason.com, check out www.earthwatch.org to see the difference you can make with our world, and the difference it can make with you.

Rich and Tonya Mandl will be presenting a workshop at the Southern Fall Conference on their Earthwatch experience, as well as performing at both the Southern Fall and Statewide Spring Conference next April