Aquatic+Insects

I went out to the Prairie Ridge Ecostation Nature Walk on Aquatic Insects and explored the different organisms in their pond. They went over the different groups of insects and even let us poke around in the pond to get pictures using the iNaturalist app. I saw many different kinds of insects as well as some tadpoles! I enjoyed learning about it all very much and hearing about how eacb of the organisms fit into the ecosystem. Many of the little kids might have already ruined that wit their poking fingers tho so....

This experience relates to the APES curriculum because we study aquatic ecosystems and do multiple labs studying the creek down at the edge of Enloe's campus. We learned about organism's niches and how each trophic level is integral to the success of the ecosystem as a whole. We have also learned about how important conservation is for the environment, which is exactly what the Prairie Ridge Ecostation is trying to accomplish so that nature can be enjoyed by people of all ages. Overall I feel that the experience was an enrichment of my environmental science education and gave some real world application to what we see in our textbook.