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General News: Learning about Nature in Black Rock Forest
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| Students graphed data they gathered in Black Rock Forest. |
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| The Brook Trout Project is raising fish at school. |
January 31, 2008
The woods and reservoirs of Black Rock Forest are serving as a laboratory for Cornwall elementary school students who in recent years have explored the science of nature within its boundaries.
On Monday, several third and fourth graders from Willow Avenue and Cornwall elementary schools told the board of education about what they have learned in the woods. Third graders at Cornwall-on-Hudson also participate in excursions to the mountains each year.
Third grader Brook Reilly explained how the students studied plant and animal life, weather, water, and sound during their field trips to Black Rock. She also said that she and other students recorded soil, water and air temperatures at the reservoir and in the woods and compared results from the two locations.
Grayson McBride recalled how the forest manager, John Brady, showed them a dead coyote and described how you could tell the animal’s age by the color of his fur and the number of teeth it had.
Brady, who has managed the forest for thirty years, has worked with the students who have made dozens of trips to the forest in recent years. This past year he also helped fourth-grade students with the Brook Trout Project they started in their classrooms.
Gillian Larsen and Corey Lapis talked about how the fourth graders are raising trout in the classroom, where the students observe them from the egg stage until they are released into the wild. They feed the fish daily, change the water, and keep track of mortality.
One of the lessons of raising fish they have learned is that the fish cannot survive in water laced with impurities, like chlorine. That’s why John Brady, the forest manager, hauls water straight from the reservoir every Monday driving his truck over to the schools. Gillian Larsen also said they learned that brook trout are really members of the salmon family.
Third grader teacher Kelly Hogan, who developed additional parts of the Black Rock experience when she was hired fulltime at Willow Avenue two years ago, said that students develop portfolios about the project that include a poem, an essay, and other writing samples along with pictures about their excursions to the forest.
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