ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 24, 1996 TAG: 9604240021
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
On a recent warm, sunny Friday, senior Tasha Reed crouched by a wide stream and tried to help her young protege think like a bug.
"Rocks," she explained to fourth-grader Ashley Williams, "are kind of like your home. And if there was too much algae, it's too dirty and you wouldn't want to live there."
The fourth-grader's head moved with an "I get it" nod as she wrote the explanation down on her clipboard.
"So, where'd all the algae come from?" Williams asked.
But this class was over. It was time for the fourth-grade class to head back to Bethel Elementary, and for their teen-age teachers - juniors and seniors in Frank Taylor's applied chemistry class - to move on to sixth period at Radford High School.
For two days, Taylor's class has shared its extensive knowledge of Connellys Run, a stream that flows just below Radford High School, with the fourth-graders.
Thanks to a grant from the Virginia Environmental Endowment, Taylor's class has spent much of the year hiking down to the stream and conducting chemical and biological tests. Last fall, they found the stream to be exceptionally healthy, but after a winter of road construction and heavy runoff from melting snow, the stream has not fared quite as well.
Taylor hadn't planned to include any Montgomery County schools in the project. But the endowment also provided $3,000 in grant money to Bethel fourth-grade teacher Pam Clements, and it suggested the two teachers work together.
"We've just started this," Clements said as her pupils ran to plunge their hands into the water. "We've already started talking about the insects that live in streams, how pollution can affect the water, all that neat stuff."
Clements said she hopes to find a stream near Bethel that runs into Connellys Run to study the rest of this year and next. Reports on the waterways from both classes will be sent to Save Our Streams, a national program that utilizes student data to document the state of American waterways.
The teen teachers and their students seemed to prefer the outdoor lesson to being stuck inside learning about stream life from a book.
Jason Rooker stared in quiet fascination as his instructors, Mark Kenley and Lee Dresclose, uncovered a slimy fish fly from its hiding place under a rock.
"You can play with him. He'll try to pinch you but his pinchers are too small still," Kenley explained as the creature wriggled out of Rooker's hand. Rooker jumped back, smiled, then reached in to find his own slimy bug.
Steve Hairston, watched as his pupil, Amanda Fugg, searched out the slime and algae with keen interest.
"Shoot," he said as she ran off to find tadpole eggs, "She grabbed stuff I wouldn't touch."
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM/Staff. 1. Under the guidance of Steve Homiakby CNB(right) Bethel Elementary fourth-graders Matt Smith (left) and Luke
Underwood study a caddis fly larva found under a rock. 2. With eager
fourth-graders wanting to give answers, chemistry teacher Frank
Taylor (left) reviews the lessons learned during their visit to
Connellys Run. 3. Dusty Bailey (below left) watches David Lewis
check for mayflies. 4. Pam Clements works with her class at the
stream. color.