Pam Martin was surrounded by children dressed as wetlands plants and animals Wednesday morning as she explained the “food chain” at Cheyenne Bottoms. A few lucky kiddos stepped into the roles of mallard duck, beaver or mink, to name a few, while those lower on the chain simply wore strips of green cloth on top of their heads. They were the algae.
The Kansas Wetlands Education Center was the scene for this and other activities created for 342 Barton County second graders. This is the ninth year for the KWEC to host a children’s Education Day, said KWEC Director Curtis Wolf.
Martin, a program specialist with the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks & Tourism, is one of many guides who take part in Education Day. She explained that plants and animals are also part of a food web, because they are all connected.
“You are at the largest inland marsh in the whole country,” Martin told the children. The KWEC, which opened in 2009, overlooks Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area.
Other activities included a nature hike, migration obstacle course, a scavenger hunt and a craft/lesson on water cycles. The children could also walk through the Natural Resource Conservation District’s Soil Tunnel Trailer, to see what goes on beneath the surface of the land.
In the auditorium, Wolf dimmed the lights and invited children to listen to some of the night sounds they might hear in the wetlands.
“Cheyenne Bottoms comes alive at night when many creatures become active,” Wolf noted. After listening to the hoots of a great horned owl, the cries of coyotes and the clicking of bats, the children could also step forward to pet a rat snake and look at scorpions under a black light. Scientists aren’t sure why, but scorpions glow under ultraviolet light, he said.
“It’s fun to be able to give the kids an idea of what’s going on out a Cheyenne Bottoms,” Wolf said.
He noted that the KWEC will soon undergo an exhibit renovation. New interactive exhibits should be installed by the end of October, thanks to a grant from the Dorothy M. Morrison Foundation.
