Lake Days Provide Hands-On Learning

Allison Kappler, K-12 Supervisor of Science and Computer Science for Bedford County Public Schools (BCPS) was looking for hands-on science options for students when she reached out to SMLA. That started a collaboration that culminated with Lake Days held at Smith Mountain Lake State Park.

During four days in April, about 230 ninth grade environmental science students from Jefferson Forest High School, Liberty High School, and Staunton River High School learned about the factors that support a clean and healthy lake.

Leading the effort for SMLA was education chair Vicky Wuerfel. To develop the program, she tapped the expertise of SMLA committee chairs and volunteers.

Field Work Makes Science Real

SML State Park hosted the event. Park Rangers Jeannette Lawler and Melissa Perry shared their expertise to create a full day of hands-on field experience for students.

One of the goals was to simulate what SMLA does to keep SML clean in the hope that some of these students would learn to love taking care of the lake.

The first simulated activity included the role the dam and the lake play in the generation of electricity through the use of a hydropower wheel and interactive data manipulation activities from the AEP website.

On the docks at the park, SMLA WQM Chair Tom Hardy, and Dock Watch program co-chair Mary Colligan taught students how to measure water clarity using Secchi disks and collect water temperatures throughout the water column. The students used these measurements to examine the relationship between water depth and temperature (i.e., the thermocline).

Through a combination of a wet lab station in the Discovery Center run by Ranger Jet and Ranger Mel, and a stream station, students explored how the pollution tolerance or intolerance of various macroinvertebrates commonly found in the streams feeding into SML can help our experts evaluate the health of the lake.

The stream station was developed and led by Geoff Orth, SMLA Save Our Streams chair and an active member of the Blue Ridge Foothills and Lakes (BRFAL) Chapter of Virginia Master Naturalists. Many of the volunteers for Lake Days were also BRFAL volunteers.