OHS Science Club Enjoys Florida Trip

By Kevin Gray
Swimming with manatees, close encounters with dolphins, snorkeling, fossil hunting, exploring the Everglades wetlands and much more kept Osawatomie and Paola High students busy on their recent Science Club trip to Florida. “The guides were great, the weather was great, and I have never seen so many alligators. I would go back in a second,” OHS Junior Bryan Richardson said.
During their six days in the southern regions of Florida from March 18 through 23, said Mike Rush, OHS Science teacher, the 28 students and five adults toured a lot of the region. “We covered hundreds of miles, more than any previous trip, and did an unimaginable number of activities,” Rush said.
Credit for the trip and earlier ones, going back to 1991, includes OHS Science teacher Michael Schainost, said Rush. “The kids do fundraising and much of their profits go towards their trip; the other goes to our  zoo, mole day activities, science shows, and scholarships,” Rush said. Cost of the spring break trip ran $1,580 plus $79 with college credit. Science Club paid a $380 scholarship, which reduced the price per student to $1200 or $1279 for college credit.
Rush said they alternate with other locations, like Houston, Chicago, Arizona, Texas, California and Florida.  “We started going every year at spring break, but times have become too difficult to get a large enough group together annually, so we go every other year.  We are currently alternating between South Florida and Southern California, unless we come up with something better like Costa Rica or the Bahamas.  It all started when Mr. Schainost came to OHS, and we got a brochure about swimming with dolphins.  That inspired us, and the program took off,” Rush said.
The coral reefs were beautiful, Schainost said, and the first manatee he ever saw in the wild, he petted. “How cool is petting a manatee?  One of the Park Rangers said,‘experience the real Florida,’ and that’s what we did.  This wasn’t museums and zoos; this was the Everglades, coral reefs and mangrove forests; this wasn’t books and tours; this was air boats, canoes, and kayaks,” Schainost said.
Upon arriving in Tampa, the first stop was Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park to view fresh and salt water fish, manatees and turtles, as well as the 210 acres in an area known for filming of many Tarzan movies. Day two included a chance to swim with the manatees in their winter home, followed by donning wet suits and snorkeling equipment to drift down the crystal clear waters of the Rainbow River.
There was nothing about the trip OHS junior Kelsey Schlesener said she would change. “I enjoyed it all, from snorkeling the crystal clear waters of the Rainbow River and the beautiful coral reefs, to touching wild manatees, interacting with the dolphins, kayaking and canoeing, and seeing all the wild alligators. The manatees were so cool. I didn’t figure a wild animal would hang out with people like they did,” Schlesener said.
Junior Michael Matthieson said he had never had so much fun in the water than he did snorkeling in the Rainbow River. “While in the Rainbow River. I would free dive down into every spring I saw. There was one in particular that was very strong, and I rode it back up to the surface. In the reef, I found and followed a huge barracuda for a few hundred feet, until I was distracted by an equally as large Southern Pacific Stingray,”.
An elevated boardwalk took the students across an old-growth cypress swamp at Highlands Hammock State Park on their third day, which was followed by visiting Canoe Outpost for canoeing on the Peace River and fossil hunting in an area known as Bone Valley. Trams and airboats provided transportation on day four through the Everglades National Park and Shark Valley with lunch at the Miccosukee Indian Village.
Interaction with dolphins began day four at Dolphin Plus/Dolphin Cove, and Island Dolphin Care placed students in the water for a hands-on with the mammals. “Having a dolphin encounter is something I thought I would never be able to experience, and I never in my life thought I would hold a baby alligator,” Schlesener said.
In describing the trip, OHS senior Joe Van Vlack said he was impressed with the alligators. “We watched people wrestle alligators 9- to 10-feet long and then found ourselves 5 feet away from one while in a canoe,” Van Vlack said.
From the dolphin encounter, a lesson on ocean kayaking was given before a trip across the bay into the mangroves and sea grass communities of Key Largo. Their last day provided a chance to climb into snorkeling gear and view colorful fish and the coral reef ecosystem, before feeding the tarpons.
The students, this year, Rush said, made up a great group. “No one was ever late to anything, and we ran hard the whole time. We were all exhausted at the end. It was neat taking four Paola boys and watching the group take them in and all get along great and making new friends,” Rush said.  Senior Joel Hendrickson, said he thought seeing what he would never see in flat Kansas was important. “Plus, one of the best things was getting along with Paola kids. They made the trip fun!” Hendrickson added.
The person who set up their trip plans did a nice job, Rush said. We have a great person in Florida named Gabi Boll with Build a Field Trip. He does a fantastic job of setting it all up and running it off for us,” Rush said. Always doing different things, said OHS senior Kathryn Wilson, will be just as much a memory as the dolphins, snorkeling, and seeing a huge stingray. “We were always on the move, always running somewhere to do something new, something great and always seeing something beautiful”.
Speaking about the present and past trips, Rush said, “We have had many fond memories made over the past couple of decades of exploring the world of science. As for highlights of this trip, I think seeing hundreds of wild gators, interacting with the dolphins, snorkeling in both fresh water and marine environments and fossil hunting are at the top of the list,” he said.
OHS senior Austin Johnson appreciated spending time with the other students. “The trip was an amazing experience. When you are surrounded by 27 other students for almost a week, you learn a lot about everyone that you would have never known otherwise. It was a great bonding experience,” Johnson said.

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Posted by admin on Apr 13 2011. Filed under News and Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry