10/24 Field Trip Reports

Chesapeake Bay Field Trip Reflection

Eunia Zhong

My experience on the Chesapeake Bay field trip was very nice. It was a fun learning experience. It was nice that we could work with the club members out of the garden. I especially enjoyed catching fish in the creek. I learned new ways to live “green” like the composting toilets and various ways to use rainwater.

I learned about the marine species that live in the bay like grass shrimp, killifish and jellyfish and testing water quality. I also learned about the land around the bay like the forests and all the plants that live there. Canoeing was also a reliving of a past experience for me.

I think I can use the things I learned on the field trip for our watershed project by talking about green ways and how what we do affects the certain creatures in the bay.

Q & A by Nathan

Q: What was the best part about this experience?

A:Catching the fish with the net was my favorite part. I could not believe that so many animals lived in such shallow waters, it

is so interesting.

Q:How has your perspective of the Chesapeake Bay changed?

A: After the field trip, understand why we should save the bay. The bay is important in our life, because it provides natural

resources that are important to our economy. If we don’t care about the bay’s health there will be many problems. If you really

discover the beauty of the bay you will find that it is home to many animals that support the food chain. The food chain is a

very fragile aspect of nature, each species has an important purpose in the food chain. Even if you remove just one species

the whole ecosystem would fail. So it is important to keep the Chesapeake Bay healthy.

Q:What did you learn from today’s experience?

A:I learned more ways to help the environment, and how people have made infrastructure more eco-friendly, including putting rain barrels and void toilets. I learned more ways to ride a canoe because I normally ride a kayak.

Q:What did you do at the Philip Merrill Environmental Center?

A:We went to the Philip Merrill Environmental Center. The staff told us the building was very eco friendly and then they told us to explore inside the building. For some reason they told us we should look at the bathrooms. We walked up the stairs and it looked like most of the building was made of used and old objects. The wood on the floors looked like they were made of

bits of wood scraps compressed together, which they told us later. They told us to get into groups and my group went to check

out the bathrooms. As soon as we got inside the bathroom, we looked at the stalls. It looked like a fancier portable and the

bottom of the portable was deep. Turns out it was a compost. Most of the sinks used rainwater and the urinals did not use any

water. We went back outside and the staff used to go on a walk through the forest. I heard many birds and most of the plants

were covered in dew. One type of plant that was puffy and had a lot of dew on it. So everyone kept smacking the plant because

when the dew came it was very satisfying. After that we went back to the center to grab nets, waterproof boots and jars to

catch fish. Someone caught the biggest Killifish the staff had ever seen. Justin and I used a drag net and went to the deeper

waters. We walked back to shore and found out we had caught a ton of fish. We released all the fish and went to have our lunch

break. After lunch we went canoeing. canoes we tied together with strings. I got into a group of 5 but since it was an uneven

number of people it was hard to control the power. After canoeing we went home.

Reflection

On Oct 24, 2022 My aunt took me to participate in the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Community.

In the beginning of the community activities, we participated in a community circle talking about the ways we use water.

I felt open during the sharing process because of how calm and friendly the community was.

Later we went into groups and came into the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s building and looked at various things such as bugs and skeletons. I felt excited to learn more about the chesapeake.

I saw that the toilets had no flushing system. Later we had lunch which was entertaining because of the community aspect of sharing food.

After lunch, we went canoeing in groups and the scenery was calm and peaceful. Again the community aspect was amazing as the teamwork was extremely enjoyable. You could really enjoy the beauty of the bay. I could hear the chirping of birds and I felt the peacefulness of the bay.