LSU AgCenter water management specialist Brian LeBlanc shows fourth-grade students from Hammond Eastside and Champ Cooper Elementary schools how to determine dissolved oxygen concentration in a water sample at the Louisiana Wetlands Exploration Day at the Shell Robert Training Facility in Robert, La. (Photo by Johnny Morgan. Click on photo for downloadable image.)

ROBERT, La. – Students from two Tangipahoa Parish elementary schools got out of the classroom for a wetlands education at the Shell Robert Training Facility on Dec. 6.

The LSU AgCenter event known as Louisiana Wetlands Exploration Day was the last of eight similar events held around the state this fall, according to Ashley Mullens, LSU AgCenter youth wetlands program manager.

The pilot program was started in the St. Tammany/Tangipahoa Parish area, and has gone so well it will be expanded to other areas of the state next year, Mullens said.

“We want the students to know that wetlands are important to Louisiana,” Mullens said. “I’m from Louisiana, but I didn’t know about wetlands until I was in college, so I wanted to make sure that students learn earlier and to let them know they can make a difference while they are young.”

The program offers young people an opportunity to learn about wetlands and the environment through a hands-on approach, said Mark Tassin, LSU AgCenter state 4-H program leader.

“We like to call this our outdoor classroom, where youth get to touch, feel, experience and ask questions of experts in a field of expertise that they may not have an opportunity to experience in a classroom setting,” Tassin said.

Eight stations were set up for the students to visit that focused on different aspects of the wetland environment: plants, animals, water quality, pollution and animal adaptation.

“We hope each station will represent one small piece of the many different things that make up a wetland,” Mullens said.

Shell believes in being a good neighbor and part of that means being active in the communities where it operates, said Tom Broom, upstream Americas deepwater learning manager for Shell.

“Wetlands loss is one of the biggest issues in Louisiana, and Shell believes that education of all citizens of the state is one of the keys to reversing this loss,” Broom said. “So when we had a chance to partner with a fine institution like the LSU AgCenter and bring in students from local schools to enhance that education, we jumped on it.”

Danielle McLeod, a fourth-grade student at Champ Cooper Elementary School in Ponchatoula, said the event was enlightening and fun.

“I enjoyed learning that if we don’t have the ecosystem, then we won’t have clean water and trees, and we won’t have clean air to breath,” she said.

The award-winning Louisiana 4-H youth wetlands education program reaches over 80,000 youth each year through a variety of methods, Tassin said. “This program is just an example of one of the methods utilized to reach these youth.”

Broom said education events like this are the foundation of the Corporate Lands for Learning certification his facility just received from the Wildlife Habitat Council.

“It’s a rare opportunity for fourth-graders to learn a little bit about the energy industry and Shell’s focus on excellence and safety,” Broom said. “We hope to hire some of them one day.”

The 4-H youth wetlands program of the LSU AgCenter, along with Louisiana SeaGrant, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Lake Pontchartrain Basin Maritime Museum, LSU AgCenter’s Wetland Plants Center and Keep Hammond Beautiful provided the fourth- graders with interactive and educational activities geared towards exploring Louisiana wetlands. LSU AgCenter’s Master Gardeners led the students in planting the native vegetation in and around the pond.

“It was great to see the fourth-graders excited to learn and ask questions. This is an age that is very impressionable, and this experience could lead youth toward a path related to the environment in the future,” Tassin said.

The 4-H youth wetlands program is funded by the Louisiana Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration and administered through the LSU AgCenter’s 4-H youth development department.

Johnny Morgan