On Wednesday the Sailing Center youth had quite a time during lunch. Ted Hart, a PhD student at UVM came down to work with the students for their weekly WAVES seminar. Ted’s research focuses on how changes in precipitation that are expected to happen with climate change will alter aquatic insect communities. Now you may ask are aquatic insects plankton? No. Plankton are small, free-floating organisms that are so tiny that they cannot move about in the water on their own and as a result just float around. After a short talk with the students on the deck, the kids headed down to the docks to conduct plankton tows. By dragging a finely meshed net through the water students were able to collect plankton samples right off our very own docks! After everyone had a chance to use the nets the kids finished their seminar on the deck investigating their findings with magnifying glasses!
