This semester, I am teaching Aquatic and Wetland Ecology. This course is hybrid and our field trips involve going to wetlands and describing them. One of the wetlands we visited had very little data and no aerial photographs for us to utilize.
One of the metrics students needed to complete their assessments was an estimated area or size of the wetland.
We had no cellular network connection and no idea how to measure this wetland.
I went to my vehicle – I had packed the usual field trip gear including clipboards, notebooks, measuring tapes, pegs, and mason line.
Since I had been out to play with my dog that morning – I also had his ball thrower and a couple of balls still in the back seat…and therein lied the answer.
I think I have used Ryland’s fetch balls as much in science as I have in playing with him. Thankfully, he doesn’t mind sharing.
I knew that our countless hours of fetch had built up whichever arm muscles allow for long-distance ball launching.
A bit of mason line tied off to his ball, into the launcher, and over the wetland it went. From one student to another across the wetland.
Success.