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Dina Freedman ReportingTrading in the classroom for the beach. The Great Salt Lake became a great lesson in science today for some Salt Lake students.
Fourth graders today from Ensign Elementary in Salt Lake had some hands on learning on the beach and on the lake. They were learning about the Ecosystem of the Great Salt Lake with the help of some graduate students from the University of Utah.
The Great Salt Lake is full of salt and of course brine shrimp.
Colby Neuman, Graduate Student: "Brine shrimp are hard to find, but some of your classmates have found them, but do you know the different stages of brine flies?"
"They are very small and they're hard to see"
Sometimes we forget what a powerful ecosystem the lake is and what a big purpose it has on our wildlife.
Colby Neuman: "These are brine fly larvae shells, and this actually, when these wash up in these big mats and they rot on the shoreline, this is what gives the smell of the Great Salt Lake."
Megan, 4th Grader: "Brine shrimp and it's a male because it doesn't have an egg sack on its tail."
The graduate students are from the U; they art part of a larger grant from the National Science Foundation to put more scientists in the classrooms.
Larry Madden, SLC School District: "What they bring is, they bring real science, not just pretend we're going to play science today in class. These people are real scientists and they bring that in and get the kids involved in actually doing science and seeing what that process is and what can you learn from science."
Jessica Allen, Graduate Student: "Pickle weed, we can eat it, so who would like to try to taste it?" "Me me me!"
The sand on the shores of the Great Salt Lake is actually pretty special, it's called oolytic sand. This sand is actually made up of the waste of the brine shrimp and the calcium carbonate from the rocks all around.
Jessica Allen: "Vinegar on the sand we'll see what happens. Is it doing anything? I'll do it again for you guys. It's expanding!"
Learning by the lake shore was the first part of their project today, they also got to cruise the Salt Lake and test the water density and depth.
They also got to learn about special birds that eat the shrimp like the California Gull and the Grebe, who loses all of its feathers on its stop at the Salt Lake, then eats a lot of those shrimp to gain strength and grow them back.
Definitely making science a lot of fun today.
