Monday, July 21, 2008

The Dangers and Adventures of the Creek

Have you ever been pinched by a crayfish? Well, here at creek camp we experience only the extreme sport of crayfish earring making. It is fun, and also very painful. Crayfish belong to the family of macros, along with many other creek critters. Macros are the creepy little bugs that attach to your toes and won't let go. Beware! You may just lose a toe! Make sure to look out for the damsel flies!!! They may look harmless from a distance but they can be dangerous. A fellow creeker was attacked but luckily it flew off, in search of its next victim to terrorize.



Well, when you're not getting terrorized by creek critters, testing the water can be an adventure all on its own. Just walking into the creek can cause mass chaos. The rocks are very slippy and its easy to fall into the macroinfested waters. Once you get past the danger of the waters, it can be a blast. For starters, you get to experiment with different chemicals, such as phenylethylene. This is a chemical in which it helps indicate the end of a titration. This is a fancy way of saying a color change might occur. Furthermore, we tested temperature, alkalinity, nitrogen, and pH, just to name a few. We did this to see how healthy the stream was. With the results in, the stream was very healthy. This is very nice to both people and the environment.

5 comments:

bella said...

Did you find any salamanders? They can be kind of cute when babies.

Grandma Judy said...

Oh wow! I love the pictures of the kids. I spotted my granddaughter right away. She has a big smile and seems to be really loving camp.
Grandma Judy

What kind of tree is it that the campers are standing in?

Memo said...

working on the streams is awesome... we had lots of fun!! :)

SV22 said...

Awesome picture!!! Crayfish earrings?? New fashion statement!

laura said...

No salamanders yet. We have a full afternoon of reptiles and amphibians planned on Thursday!
The tree is a Black Willow and is the largest in Crawford County with a circumference of at least 323 inches! http://www.crawfordconservation.com/for-photos2.html