Last year we worked with seventy to seventy-five schools in the state, third grade through high school. This is a means to get kids excited about fishing. They may measure the clarity of the water, temperature, and oxygen levels at different times during the year, then use the data collected for classroom math and science activities. And they go ice fishing. We bring all the fishing gear and use maggots for bait.
Some kids take the whole thing too literally.
While the Glacier snowshoers bring home maggot-less memories, other concepts stick with them like oatmeal to ribs. After the Glacier field trip, we had a test. Our biology teacher asked us how different types of snow affect animals, like subnivean and ungulates, with sugar snow, ice crust, age-hardened, and packed snow. I think that the students in my class remembered something about the trip, but whether it was about the subnivean mammals or the fifteen-minute snowball fight, I'm not sure. But any day outside is better than a day in school.