Understanding Connection and Community
On a dreary September morning a team of 6th grade students from Seattle’s Westside School upend cobble in Deer Creek while searching for macro-invertebrates – living clues in the mystery of this habitat’s health and the quality of the water cascading downstream. Their giddy grins and eager body language belie the soggy impediments to learning that characterize Pacific Northwest weather this time of year.
Weeks later, on a crisp October afternoon, seven 5th grade students from Bellingham’s Happy Valley Elementary grapple with the concept of a watershed while scanning the snow encrusted peaks which ensnare Diablo Lake. Narrating the life of a raindrop, they trace its course from cloud to ground to river and eventually the sea. Participants delight in the chance to imagine water flowing through their world and passing places they may never go.
Thunder Arm and the upper Skagit watershed seen from Sourdough Mountain. Photo by Colby Mitchell.
