An Unusual Spring Break

By Carl Ferguson

On Spring Break this year, 12 Grand Traverse area teens did things a little differently.  They did not lounge in the sun (although they may have wanted to), nor did they hang out at the mall or sleep all morning.  Instead, they spent three snowy, windy days using high-end sound recording equipment, digital still and video cameras and GPS units to capture sights and sounds throughout the Grand Traverse Bay Watershed.

What were they doing out there?  Well, they were participating in a 3-Day Spring Break Workshop sponsored by the Listening to the River project.  The project is funded by the National Science Foundation, and led by a coalition of area organizations including the

• Land Information Access Association (LIAA)
• Northwestern Michigan College's Great Lakes Water Studies Institute, (WSI)
• Great Lakes Children's Museum, (GLCM), and
• Interlochen Public Radio, (IPR)

The project is intended to engage students in the scientific exploration and documentation of their local watershed

Why did the teens choose to participate? For some, it was an interest in technology, watersheds, or just being outside. For others, the reason might have been simply that “my mom or dad signed me up.” Either way, the three days they spent outside in the watershed and in the computer classroom were informative, engaging, rewarding and perhaps most importantly - FUN.

What exactly did they do? Their alternative spring break began with a day to learn about technology. After a basic introduction to the theory of GPS, it was off to the Grand Traverse Conservation District’s property at Sabin Pond for a Multi-media Geocache. Here’s how it worked. After breaking into teams of two, each team received a GPS unit, a piece of recording equipment and the coordinates of their first cache. Using their brains and the GPS units, they set off to find the hidden geocaches (small plastic containers), where more instructions were waiting.

For example, one team was equipped with a digital audio recorder. After receiving coordinates, and entering them into the GPS unit, they navigated to the hidden geocache. There, they found instructions to record 15 seconds of audio that best illustrates their location and also an interview with their teammate describing the place. In this way, the participants developed technical skills with the equipment and honed their skills of observation and description. Similar activities were structured around the digital video and still photography with each team finding 3 different geocaches and using each piece of multimedia gear.

After the "capture" session, it was back to the computer lab for a crash course in downloading, editing, production and posting. For the Listening to the River project, each team is provided and maintained its own digital storage media. For example, they carry GPS Units, SD Cards, Compact Flash and Mini DV for capturing data and then download and edit using external hard drives exclusive to their team. Each piece of multimedia data is associated with a GPS point, and working with professional Radio and Video producers, they finished day one examining and editing their collected media to find and produce what best captured their sense of the place they visited. These polished pieces were posted to a digital map on the Listening to the River web site.

All this technology learning set the stage for days two and three of the workshop which focused on their interests and observations within the watershed. With field excursions to the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy's preserve at Pyatt Lake, the property at the Grand Traverse Commons and other locations, the students were prompted to find things that pique their interest, observe and attempt to capture what they perceive. They were asked to develop questions about what they hear and see, and back in the lab, once again worked with producers to edit and polish the data.

On the final day, a lunch with local science experts provided an opportunity to look over their captured data and answer any remaining questions about the nature of what they had collected (e.g., what kind of bird made that sound, why does the water seep from the ground there, etc.). The day concluded with a viewing for parents and staff of each participant's best work.

Although unusual, this Spring Break was tremendously productive. In three days, the teens created two radio pieces for Interlochen Public Radio, captured sounds, video and still pictures for a new exhibit at the Great Lakes Children's Museum, and helped fill out a map of the sights and sounds of our watershed. You can view their collected work at http://www.listeningtotheriver.org/.

Click on the play button below to listen to one of the radio pieces prepared for Interlochen Public Radio.