1. What plants/animals are found at the beach?

2. What do people do at the beach?

3. What sort of tools/technologies are used to study the water/plants/animals at the beach?

4. What reasons do you think the beach might be closed to swimming?

Each group of students was given one minute to write down as many answers or thoughts as possible and stick them up in the appropriate circle on the concept maps. From our perspective, the majority of the students we had the opportunity to meet seemed to be engaged and having fun with the task. We did notice that once a student put an answer up, many students noted it and used the same response. That resulted in the concept maps looking very full, which was definitely a positive.

A second part of our station involved giving the students an opportunity to examine specimens (gobies, zebra mussels, pond water). This part of the task seemed to be fairly popular, too. In particular, we noted that the students found the gobies to be the most interesting. Significantly, many of the students recognized the gobies and some even had prior knowledge how problematic the gobies were at Lake Ontario. A few students also seemed to have prior knowledge of the zebra mussels as well.

For the final (closing) part of our station, we asked the students what else they’d like to know/learn/explore about the beach. They were instructed to write/illustrate their answers on additional stickies and post them up on the concept map. Most of the students were able to come up with a question, though time was an issue.

What we learned from the station:
At our station the children were very engaged and had no trouble participating. This shows us that the students will probably be outgoing at the beach and active participators. We also learned that many of the students know that Ontario beach closes often and that there is a pollution problem. Many of the students showed an understanding that there is bacteria in the water and algae resulting in beach closing. Our group learn that with a large group of teachers that out number students is important to prior to working to with the students discuss group dynamics and decided whose going to say what and when. In our group we were not clear on each teachers job role and because of that one person talked the majority of the time and other teachers weren’t able to have as much interaction with the children. This is something before camp our group needs to address to avoid anyone feeling left out or less important because camp is meant to be a learning experience for everyone.

Student	Been to the beach?	Plants/Animals	Things to do	Tools/Technology	Beach closures	What else
Terrence	Yes	seaweed	swim	microscope	stank	How can we clean it?
		catfish	sleep		dirty
		people	sun tan		stuff in it
		seal	eat		Ahhhh!
			run
Daren	Yes: Charlotte	sharks	tan	drainer	dead animals	Any dangerous animals?
		frogs	ride a boat	beaker	being cleaned out
		drawing of a squid	jog	thermometer	water dirty
			cook out
Briyanna	Yes: Charlotte	seagulls	walk around	thermometer	algae	Why is the water so dirty
		people	volleyball	nets	cow poop	Why does animals (fish) keep dying
		fish	catch	boats	pollution
		algae	swim	graduated cylinder	spray farmers use to kill bugs
		sharks	playground
		seashells	merry-go-round
Juan	Yes	fish	swim	thermometer	pollution
		birds	play	graduated cylinder	lifeguards
		bacteria	get wet
			wash off sand
Josh	Yes: Charlotte	Plants	relax	thermometer	bacteria
		animals	tan		animals
		fish	eat		dirty
			swim		dead fish
			sand castle
			bathe
			talk
Yeslyann	Yes	algae	walk	graduated cylinder	dangerous animals	Why is it so dirty?
		goose	exersice	microscope	disease
		fish	sports	thermometer	pollution
		ducks	swim	test tubes	bacteria
Brian	Yes: Charlotte	algea	sports	sonar	bacteria	Whats the acidity of the lake?
		seagulls	swim	pH paper	polluted
		fish	tan
			picnic
Liam	Yes: Sodus	crabs	volleyball	beakers	no lifeguard	Any other salt water fish that can live in fresh water
		fish	collect shells	microscope	weather
		seaweed	feed birds	test tubes	trash
		algea	sand castle		polluted water
			swim		other stuff
Jiren	Yes: Charlotte	crabs	swim	test tubes	dirty	Can gobis kill fish bigger then them?
		algea	walking	beakers	weather
		sharks	tennis	microscope	trash
		fish	basketball	thermometer	pollution
		plankton	volleyball		littering
		clown fish	bird feeding
		lobsters
Hadaree	Yes: Ontario	algea	sand castle	test tubes	weather	How to clean water?
		seaweed	water gun	distillation	no lifeguard
		crabs	swim		to clean up
		clam	picnic
		fish	collect trash
		starfish
Hannah	Yes: Many	plankton	soccer	Out of time	Out of time
		algea	chill
		seaweed	tan
		fish	volleyball
		spongebob	swim
Aslan	Yes: Many	fish	boating	Out of time	Out of time
		green things	stare at it
Jhade	Yes: Charlotte	rocks	swim	Out of time	Out of time
		manatees	sports
		sand	jetski
		fish	sail
		sting rays	relax
		seahorse	tan
		starfish
		sharks
		dolphins
Demari	Yes: Many	crabs	tan	Out of time	Out of time
		fish	soccer
		seaweed	swim
		plankton	fish
		beavers	skip rocks
		crane	run
		ducks	football
		starfish

What we are going to use at camp:
In this section is a list of the possible ways we can incorporate our data into camp:

Using the concept maps and data:
1. We can compile a group list for each of the groups (once we know which campers are in which group). These lists would include all of the campers’ answers for all of the questions, but the individual answers would be anonymous so students did not feel as though they could be picked on for not contributing many answers or for contributing too much. As a group the campers could then revisit the questions to provide additional answers they may not have thought of during the 1 minute time that we provided for them for the concept interviews. This could facilitate a group discussion.
2. Each camper could be presented with a list of their answers that would not be displayed to the entire group and then the group could have a discussion around the questions and provide their answers as well as additional answers during the discussion.
3. The concept maps themselves could be displayed with or without the names for all to visit and discuss.

The discussion could take on a variety of forms:
1. Discussion can just be about combining the answers of the campers in your group and adding additional answers they did not originally think of. Perhaps focusing more on Ontario/Charlotte beach. (This may be particularly important for the students who missed out on completing all four questions.
2. Discussion could be about introducing the idea of Water Ecology by have the campers think about the connections and interactions between the 4 questions and their answers. How do the things people do at the beach affect the plants and animals? How do the plants and animals affect why the beach might be closed? How do our reasons for closing the beach affect the tools used to study the beach? How do the things people do at the beach affect the tools we use at the beach? etc etc. There are possible connections between each of the four questions and the other 3.
3. Discussion could make it more clear whether the campers understand the difference between fresh and salt water ecosystems. Many of the campers used salt water organisms for answers, this was allowed because we let them tell us answers that had to do with any beach and any body of water, but it is important to decipher whether the students knew they were talking about salt water organisms or if they didn’t know there was a difference.
4. Our closing question regarding what the students were interested in exploring further regarding the beach may be taken into consideration when determining what to study for camp. A group discussion on what they want to study and whether it is feasible (the pros and cons of studying that topic) would be beneficial.