Because of its stable bedrock substrate, the rocky shore supports an incredible diversity of life, while the shifting sands of the beach make it difficult for most creatures to live there. The Coastal Watersheds lesson centers on exploration of our salt marsh in Camp Ellis, where the Saco River meets the sea at the southern end of Saco Bay. Our Coastal Watersheds lesson provides a unique and rare opportunity for students to investigate the fragile and ecologically threatened boreal salt marsh ecosystem. Students learn about the amazing adaptations of salt marsh organisms such as salt hay, cord grass and mummichogs, as well as how salt marshes form, what an estuary is, and why salt marshes and estuaries are of vital ecological importance. Students visit several stations where they get to examine live specimens of echinoderms, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and plankton.
Students then view plankton on a projecting microscope.
Students will have a chance to explore the woods at dusk, and, weather permitting, get a chance to look at stars through our telescope. This lesson expands upon and reviews the connections between the many ecosystems that the students studied over the course of the week, but also emphasizes the role humans play in ecosystems, and explores how humans impact and alter the natural functioning of ecosystems.