According to environmental science teacher Mike Thomas, the students are currently learning about how their actions on land have impacts on local waterways and connected watersheds in the class.

“What we’re doing here in Patton has an impact downstream, so we’re trying to make that connection for the kids,” Thomas said.

While teaching the students how to paddle a canoe, Pennsylvania Rivers & Streams mobile canoe program educators Shane Urban and Adaiah Bauer encouraged them to have fun, learn something and be safe while on the lake.

“We want (students) to learn something to keep them a little more connected to their local waterways and just kind of reinforce the idea that everything is connected,” Urban said.

Cambria Heights seniors Jonathan Jolly (second from left) and Noah Smith use a dichotomous key to identify aquatic macroinvertebrates Tuesday at a creek that feeds into Glendale Lake near Prince Gallitzin State Park.
Mirror photo by Matt Churella

For some students, like Alana Sears, learning how to ride a canoe was the “most intimidating part” of the trip. She fell twice while trying to enter and exit her canoe.

“But other than that, it was a lot of fun,” Sears said.

After paddling canoes across the lake, students searched under rocks in a nearby creek for macroinvertebrates — crayfish, beetles and mayflies, among other aquatic insects — which they placed in ice trays and white bins and used dichotomous keys to identify.

The students were then able to determine the creek had “excellent” water quality after identifying more than 20 different macroinvertebrates living in the water.

Students Noah Smith and Jonathan Jolly said that was their favorite part of the trip.

Cambria Heights seniors Stella Stoltz paddles a canoe on Glendale Lake Tuesday while Austin Sprague steers the boat with his paddle in the back.
Mirror photo by Matt Churella

“Getting to combine physical activity with the educational side made it more fun than if we were just in the classroom,” Jolly said. “We also had fun in ways that we weren’t expecting.”

The students paddled their canoes over to a wetland area of the lake where Urban and Bauer had them spend “a quiet moment in nature” before returning to the park for lunch.

Several students — Katy Mihalow, Merisa Karoheim and Remi Conrad — said their favorite part of the trip was just being out on the water and seeing the beautiful views.

“That was a very beautiful and fun experience, and I think I did learn a lot about the little creatures that are in the water,” Conrad said.

When asked what he learned from the trip, Jeramyah Hoffman, said, “Don’t tip the boat” — something he and fellow students Damien Harrell and Aiden Gray nearly did while paddling their canoe.

Cambria Heights senior Marah Hilyer hands environmental science classmate Austin Sprague an aquatic creature that the students used dichotomous keys to identify Tuesday in a creek near Glendale Lake. Also pictured between Sprague and Hilyer is senior Stella Stoltz.
Mirror photo by Matt Churella

“We wouldn’t have drowned. We can swim,” Hoffman said with a laugh. “I don’t know about Damien.”

Harrell jokingly said he can float and was scared when their canoe nearly flipped over.

“All was going good until that fatal day,” he jokingly said of the experience.

Students Stella Stoltz and Austin Sprague, who rode in a separate canoe together, said their favorite part of the trip was watching Hoffman and his peers nearly tip over.

“It was just fun to paddle around and get out of school,” Sprague said.

Mirror photo by Matt Churella

After lunch, the students were given equipment to test “a few different things” in the water, which helped them determine the overall health of the lake, Urban said.

The district has partnered with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation to host field trips at the park for almost 30 years and another group of students will be at the park today and Thursday, Thomas said.

“It’s one of the highlights of their high school career,” Thomas said of the trip. “They’ll always remember these memories they’re going to make here today.”

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.