In an educational partnership with Olympic Park Institute (OPI), Feiro Marine Life Center provides marine science and watershed education to 4th and 5th grade students from Sequim, Port Angeles, and Crescent schools. The program provides an introduction to watershed and marine related issues with visits to the classroom, a study of the Peabody Creek watershed, a field investigation to Feiro Marine Life Center, Hollywood Beach and the Olympic Coast Discovery Center. This program is a foundation for the programs to follow in students’ middle school years at Olympic Park Institute and later as high school students through programs once again offered at Feiro Marine Life Center.
N.O.W. Fourth Grade
Feiro educators will visit your classroom and provide a lesson to introduce watershed and marine ecosystem concepts. The ½ field investigation consists of three sessions:
Session 1: Hollywood Beach/City Pier: Students participate in a beach seine or a plankton tow and study the creatures and plants they find. How do they live together? How do they live with humans?
Session 2: Feiro Marine Life Center: Students study the feeding habits and nearshore species’ adaptations for acquiring food and learn how organisms contribute to the food web.
Session 3: NOAA’s Olympic Coast Discovery Center: Students learn about marine protected areas, such as the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, and understand how some marine mammals feed and how each of us can pack a waste-free lunch.
Class Length: 2 ½ hours
Group Size: 25-50 (prefer smaller classes, but can manage larger groups)
Program Cost: Grant funded for public schools – contact FMLC for details
N.O.W. Fifth Grade
Feiro educators will visit your classroom to engage students in posing questions about their watershed. The full day field investigation is as follows:
Upper Creek: Students meet at Olympic National Park Visitor Center and discuss the boundaries of the Peabody Creek watershed and Olympic National Park. Students are asked to consider where water found in the creek comes from and what it carries as it enters and travels down the watershed.
Session 1: Riparian Forest Station: Students observe and learn about the physical (abiotic) properties of the watershed – soils and sediment, riparian forest, surface water and ground water, and how they impact the water and organisms in the water.
Session 2: ONP Visitor Center Station: Students use a hands-on watershed table to follow the movement of water, nutrients and pollution through the watershed.
PEABODY CREEK Students walk 2 ½ miles down Peabody Creek and as a group make observations about the system at three locations on the creek. Students observe sample indicators of stream health including temperature, dissolved oxygen and turbidity. How are these indicators changing as we move down the watershed?
Lunch Break
Session 1: City Pier/Hollywood Beach: Students assist with a plankton tow or participate in a beach seine at Hollywood Beach. Students study the results of their tow or seine and how the health of Peabody Creek affects the health of the nearshore environment and the ocean.
Session 2: NOAA’s Olympic Coast Discovery Center: Students observe a world chart and answer questions regarding proportion of ocean compared to land, and whether different areas of the ocean are interconnected. They learn basic information about ocean currents, and track “lost cargo” from different locations around the globe. Students discuss the definition of marine debris, its sources and impacts, and track how debris from a local watershed, such as Peabody Creek, can travel around the world. The lesson ends with a discussion of different ways each of us can reduce marine debris.
Grade: 4th and 5th
Class Length: full day
Group Size: 25-50 (prefer smaller classes, but can manage larger groups)
Program Cost: Grant funded – contact FMLC for details
