Area youth and their families learned about the health of the Chesapeake Bay and how to protect the largest estuary in the U.S. at the Maryland Coastal Bays Program’s annual Bay Day in Worcester County. The event featured environmentally focused interactive exhibits and activities, along with free boat rides on the St. Martin River, music and food trucks.
UMES Extension 4-H STEM specialists joined in the effort to educate youth on the environment at this year’s event by demonstrating how pollution on land can end up in the Bay through a hands-on activity using a tabletop EnviroScape model.
“Pollution can find its way into our coastal bays in the form of surface runoff from potential sources like motor oil on roads, herbicide applications to lawns and agricultural fertilizer on fields,” said Ariel Clay, a 4-H STEM youth development specialist with UMES Extension. “The activity showed the flow by having youth make it rain by pouring different colored liquids representing pollution sources onto the EnviroScape, then observing where it ended up in the model’s tributaries and bays.”
Based on the participants’ observations, they then brainstormed how to stop or mitigate contamination, Clay said. Some of the solutions included reducing the amount of weed killers and lawn fertilizers, properly disposing of oils and chemicals, and planting more native grasses in our wetlands to help filter the water.
UMES 4-H STEM is available to provide this activity, along with one focusing on the role of oysters in maintaining a healthy Chesapeake Bay, at community events. Contact Clay at amclay@umes.edu to inquire.
