Belwin Conservancy

April 16, 2010  
Filed under Life at Como

On a beautiful sunny day in March, Mr. Lucas’s Environmental and Biology classes took a field trip to the Belwin Conservancy. The students at the conservancy were able to walk around the property while being taught about natural sciences focusing on water quality. Belwin is located just north of Afton near the west bank of the Saint Croix.

This program is part of Valley branch environmental learning center, which was started in 1971 as part of a collaborative effort between Belwin and Saint Paul Public Schools. Their mission statement is to provide a meaningful outdoor learning experience which promotes life-long awareness toward the care and respect of our world. This program is usually for elementary school students but the experience is invaluable at any age.

When the students arrived at Belwin they were lead into the learning center where they were given a brief history of the conservancy and taught about some of the studies being conducted in the rivers and ponds. The students were able to learn about some of the purposes and applications for studying water quality. The group was then taken outside to walk around Belwin’s beautiful property. During the course of the walk the guide helped students identify different plants as well as showing certain interesting features of the land.

The students were then brought to a stream and a pond, where they measured different things about the water quality such as pH level, dissolved oxygen, and biodiversity. All the samples from the river and pond were then brought back to the learning center and examined. The students were able to learn a lot about what plants and animals need to survive in water while looking at the information they collected. The experience was fun and informative giving students an opportunity to conduct hands on learning.

A past teacher from Como was also present at Belwin. Some students who had Environmental or Biology in the past years may remember Mr. Leonard. He is now working at Belwin in fact as one of the instructors and is still providing the quality teaching that we enjoyed at Como. He wishes other teachers at Como to know that Belwin is open to any classes that want to come and experience the conservancy.

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