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Lafayette School hosts Underwater World Festival

By Sandy Mouat
CORRESPONDENT

Lafayette Elementary School recently hosted an Underwater World Festival, a delightful event giving students and their families an opportunity to learn about creatures that live in or around oceans, ponds, and streams. The program was chosen by the Lafayette staff to enhance this year’s curriculum.
        Presented by the Lawrence Hall of Science and sponsored by the Lafayette Arts & Science Foundation, tables were set up as interactive stations staffed by parent volunteers. There were so many enticing activities to explore, it was hard to know where to begin
        Jan Askin, principal of Lafayette School, looks forward to all programs presented by the Lawrence Hall of Science.“They are always so thorough and organized and provide the most engrossing activities for the students. They bring all of the materials and do the set up, give the parent volunteers a quick training, and supervise all of the stations during the event, giving the participants a wonderful learning experience.”
        Approximately one hundred adults and one hundred fifty children attended the festival, reflecting on the terrific experience of the Math Around the World Festival presented by Lawrence Hall of Science last Spring.
        About sixteen parents volunteered to help with the many activities. Subjects presented at the stations ranged from environmental awareness to live animal handling.
        The live animals presented included a boa constrictor, who received many affectionate, gentle strokes from tiny, eager hands. Other live animals included a spotted salamander, a bull frog, and a turtle called a red-eared slider.
        At the invertebrate table, exotically colored shells of all shapes and kinds were handled with awe as parent volunteer Scott Cameron explained to the students that the shells once served as homes for many creatures.
        Said Cameron, “I have a degree in biology from UCB and have two daughters in Lafayette School. I was very impressed with the event that LASF put on and felt that the children were very enthusiastic and involved. I think that it is through programs like this that we stand the best chance of raising the consciousness of our children and making environmental preservation important to them as they grow and shape the world.”
        Environmental awareness was addressed at the Entanglement Station, where participants could see the devastating effect of debris and pollution, especially plastic litter, combined with fishing nets, on the population of sea animals.
        Microscopes were set up at one table to allow observation of brine shrimp and other tiny life forms, while at another, earphones were available for listening to five different whale songs.
        Participants were able to create underwater projects to take home, including fish prints, and their own marine mammals, imaginatively designed, drawn on paper, cut out, stapled, and stuffed. There was also an opportunity to create a paper plant or animal to add to a mural which will be on exhibit at the school. The final product was a rare view of an undersea world teeming with life.
        At other tables, students could learn about and identify three different kinds of whale tails, or flukes, or work with partners to map the movements of aquarium fish every fifteen seconds, discovering the patterns in which fish swim.
        “Tonight is special because it includes whole families,” commented Askin. “When younger siblings come to these events, before they are students here, it gives them a feeling of ownership and pride in the school, ahead of time.”

11/00 Reprinted with permission. Visit the Contra Costa Times on the web at www.contracostatimes.com.

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