From the FM metro to the oceans: Junior Aquarist Program
By Emily Welker, KVRR
MOORHEAD, Minn. (KVRR) — “It’s so cool!!! It feels so cool,” sounds the voices of a group of a dozen or so elementary-schoolers crowded around a single net borne aloft by a camp instructor who’s just snagged a flappy, floppy, but still-reasonably-cooperative Atlantic stingray in the basement of the biosciences department.
They’re petting the small animal gently — adhering to the “two-fingers” rule to protect the delicate aquatic animal and children alike — and admiring her smooth skin and graceful wings before the instructor slides the creature back into the water.
It is cool, and not just because adult and children alike are standing directly in the splash zone of the stingray and horseshoe crab enclosure.
The children are learning the basics of marine biology, the planet’s oceans, and how they may not be as far away from us as they seem here in the Red River Valley.
That’s the focus at MSUM’s Junior Aquarist class.
Check out the College for Kids & Teens Junior Aquarist story featured on KVRR.