Amphibious and Ambitious School Project

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Amphibious and Ambitious School Project - at the Yakima Herald-Republic

10/5/03
573 words
Yakima Herald-Republic

Amphibious and Ambitious School Project

By DORI HARRELL
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

Frog catchers sound a lot like fishermen.

"The big one got away."

"Ooooh, look, I caught one."

"Quick, grab the net. Don't let it get away."

And of course, "Frog in!"

That's what 29 Zillah High School students shouted Friday afternoon as
they captured more than 100 small tree frogs at a pond just a few miles
from the campus.

They dragged their hands through slimy algae and bulrushes, scooping up
frogs in nets as part of the school's CROAK Project, which tracks
amphibian populations in the Zillah area.

Zillah High School science teacher Jeffrey Charbonneau developed the
project, which also includes soil and water testing and computer mapping
of the pond.

He received a Central Washington University grant to pay for the initial
three-year study, plus numerous other grants and donations, including
several computers.

Total funds amounted to $22,000.

But that's not all he received.

Charbonneau, a 1996 Zillah High School graduate, recently earned a Golden
Apple award from KCTS public broadcasting in Seattle, also the parent
station of KYVE in Yakima. The station honors 10 educational individuals
and programs each year.

He received the recognition for the CROAK project and for helping
revitalize the high school's science department.

"I was flabbergasted to hear about the award," Charbonneau said Friday
while riding on a bus with 29 students to the pond at a nearby orchard.
"When KCTS called, I thought it was a mistake. But it's sinking in now."

On Friday, the excitement on the bus wasn't due to the award. It was due
to the upcoming frog-catching session.

The students, mostly sophomores, piled out of the bus, grabbed nets,
plastic baggies and hand-held global positioning systems and spaced
themselves in teams of four and five around the pond, which measured 160
feet by 60 feet.

Once a student nabbed a tree frog, another placed it in a baggie, measured
it with calipers and logged its length, gender, and the longitude and
latitude of where it was caught. Big frogs started at about 3 centimeters.

Frogs with chins darker than their tummies were marked males and frogs
whose chins matched their tummies were tagged females.

Sara Hollowell, 15, refused to touch the cold-blooded critters and
squealed if she even saw one, but she did net a few. A classmate
transferred them to the baggies, though.

Adriana Mendoza, 16, Amanda Hill, 15, and Melissa Johnson, 16, showed no
such fear and captured them with their hands.

"It's fun," Hill said. "I like catching the frogs. I like getting out of
the classroom and school."

The activity also appealed to Justin Rico, 16.

"I remember catching frogs with friends as a kid, and it's fun to do
hands-on stuff," he said.

The hands-on doesn't end at the pond.

The students will catch frogs about every two weeks till winter, when
frogs burrow and become inactive, similar to hibernation.

The kids haul the creatures back to the classroom, where they're weighed.
Central Washington University graduate students then inject minuscule
tracking tags into the frogs' back legs. They're generally released to the
pond the same day they're captured.

The study began in spring 2002.

"There's not a lot of real research on amphibians in this area because
it's a desert," Charbonneau said.

He plans to have students write the research articles, which he hopes will
be published in scientific journals.

"With this," he said, "students get to implement technology into the
classroom with a hands-on activity."

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