Echo Field Trip

On Thursday, GRIT students had a field trip to the Echo Center on Burlington's waterfront. Students had 4 rotations to learn about human impact along the waterfront, adaptations in the aquarium section, behind the scenes at Echo, and the to explore the visiting butterfly exhibit. 

Students hear about the plan for the day from our guide, Chris. 

Mr. Jensen led the waterfront walk with students, discussing human impact. Students noted human creations like the breakwater and the fill to create the land for the marinas and many buildings. 

Students also got to talk with the UVM crew on the research boats, docked right outside Echo. 

Students inside the aquarium section's shipwreck. 

Catfish

Sturgeon

Back in the shipwreck.

Turtles

Delivering the weather forecast

Students experimented with the kinetic sand exhibit. Elevation sensors created a topographic map based on the mountains, lakes and rivers the students created. Then, water would "fall" on the map in the form of blue shaded areas. The water would fall from the top of the mountains and pool into the lakes they created before eventually moving into the ocean. It was a fun model to manipulate and track watershed. 

Chris gave a guided behind the scenes tour. Here students are learning about quarantine areas for different animals, and areas where animals can take a break from being in exhibits. 

This is the behind the scenes view of a turtle exhibit. 

This is the room where all of the water is regulated. None of the water comes from the lake because of invasive species. All of the water is city water that is treated by forcing air through it to remove all the chemicals before it enters exhibits. 

Students were able to climb up and view the large aquarium exhibit from the behind the scenes perspective. 

It's a very different view from what the public sees!

Here the students are learning about the animals who need a break from exhibits. Contrary to what the public often thinks, this is not an area for sick animals, but instead where animals are rotated through public view, which can sometimes be stressful. 

They also have a program to help raise the softshell turtles. They are a protected species, and Echo helps give the turtles born late in the season a head start by continuing to feed them throughout the winter so that they will have a greater chance of survival upon release. 

Some people were very popular in the butterfly exhibit!

A blurry photo of a glasswing. They were literally clear, and the camera had a hard time finding them!

Darker colors with wings open...

...Bright, bold colors on the other side.

Brilliant blue when open...

...owl face camouflage when closed. 

From the outside of the butterfly tent, the shadow of the butterflies were beautiful! 

Ask your child about what they learned from our field trip. How do humans impact the environment, particularly by the lake? What kind of adaptations have native fish developed?