Re: NANFA-- collecting with kids

Bill Flowers (bloomin_at_indy.net)
Fri, 08 Aug 2003 01:07:52 -0500

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A few years back I took some of the 4-H kids in our local group on a
small collecting trip. We had sent permission slips home with the kids
a few weeks before and also invited the parents to come also. On the day
of collecting we had about 8 kids with about 10- 12 adults. I gave them
a brief run down of what we might see and you could see all of the
parents with a bored look on their face. I took them to a local stream
that I knew had SRBD and Redfin Shiners. We ran the seine thru once ang
came up with about 12 SRBD and about 20 Redfin Shiners also had a few
Johnny Darters and a couple of Orange throat darters in the net. Of
course all the fish were in breeding colors. When the parents saw these
fish EVERYONE of their mouths fell wide open. The parents could not
believe that these fish have been in this location all of their lives
without them knowing it. All of the sudden the parents were more
interested in seeing more fish than the kids were. Some of the parents
grabbed 10" aquarium nets and started collecting darters in the riffles
along with an occasional Sculpin. That day we talked about conservation
and other things that might affect the habitat of the fish. I actually
believe that the parents got more out of that trip than the kids.

Bill F.

Bob Bock wrote:

>Does anyone have any experience taking kids out collecting? I'm doing
>research for an article and would love to hear about such trips.
>
>Also, does anyone have any recollections of collecting with an adult when
>they were kids?
>
>Thanks a lot.
>
>Bob
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/"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association"
/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association
/ nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word
/ subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to
/ nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to
/ nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead.
/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org
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