Water Festival
Emporia students get a close-up look at nature in trip to the lakes
By Brandy Nance
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
COUNCIL GROVE
Temperatures in the mid-50s and an icy wind off the lake on Tuesday morning didn’t keep more than 1,000 students from flocking to Council Grove Lake for the 2007 Twin Lakes Water Festival.
Students from Lyon, Chase, Geary, Morris, Wabaunsee and Dickinson counties represented 30 schools at the festival, which is sponsored by the Twin Lakes Water Quality Project.
Students were divided into groups at different parks — each corresponding with a color — and participated in hands-on activities with everything from the geology of an aquifer, the water cycle, landfill construction, water conservation, Kansas wildlife and soils.
Area students who attended represented Timmerman, Riverside, Sacred Heart, Emporia Christian School, St. Joseph in Olpe, and North Lyon County.
Project Coordinator Katie Miller said after members of the project group attended water celebrations in Nebraska and Topeka, they decided that a water celebration was needed in this area. That was four years ago and today the festival is in its third year with the goal of educating students about water and water quality through various hands-on activities.
This year, there were 132 festival volunteers from Chase County High School, North Lyon County High School and Council Grove High School. Miller said that every school that attended had a volunteer assigned to them and every presenter also had a volunteer.
Many Lyon County students were assigned to the purple section. Fourth-graders from Riverside Elementary gathered around Curtis Schmidt, associate curator of herpetology at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays. The students listened and watched intently as Schmidt, who participates in the festival every year, brought out frogs, turtles and snakes. Schmidt’s station was called “aquatic herpetology.”
Schmidt showed students a soft-shelled turtle with a pancake looking shell. He cautioned the students not to touch the turtle.
“Turtles can bite and they can bite really hard,” he said, as many of the students drew back. “You always need to remember that turtles are wild animals.”
That phrase stuck with student Guadalupe Bedolla.
“I learned that turtles bite,” Bedolla said, while discussing the station with her classmates. “My favorite one was the ‘pancake turtle’.”
Judith Zuniga’s favorite part of the program also was the “pancake turtle.” She described the turtle as the one with the big beak and the soft shell.
Following the turtles, Schmidt showed a garter snake. This turned out to be Yulissa Hernandez’s favorite part of the day.
“I like the garter snake because I like the color of it,” Hernandez said, with a smile.
Schmidt allowed the students to touch the snake. Some students cringed. Others smiled and commented on how pretty the snake was. Very few students backed off as Schmidt allowed the small snake to wrap itself around his fingers.
Schmidt allowed time for questions after his demonstration. One student shouted out “Can toads give you warts?”
“No, toads cannot give you warts,” Schmidt answered. “When you pick them up they will pee on you, but they won’t give you warts.”
Another student asked why snakes stick their tongues out. This was promptly answered by another student who said snakes sense with their tongues.
“They don’t smell with their noses,” Schmidt said. “They smell with their tongue.”
When asked, the students said they enjoyed the day. They could be heard chatting about the different stations in their section. Student Stephanie Guillen said she enjoyed the station that talked about ducks.
“I learned they migrate from the north to the south,” Guillen said.