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[Teachers & Students] [Coastal Aquatic Lending Library] [Estuary Live] [Estuary-Net] |
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School/Student Field Trip Information to the Rachel Carson Reserve Required Attire: Old tie-on shoes or water shoes for wading and walking through mud and water. You will do considerable walking. No sandals or flip-flops allowed as oysters have razor sharp edges. Old clothes suitable for getting wet and muddy. Dress appropriately for the weather. Sunscreen and hats are highly recommended. Suggestions for scheduling: Guided field trips are subject to staff availability and low tides. Have several suitable dates available when you call to register your group to ensure a trip during low tide. Notify the staff of your instructional objectives. Some activities require greater teacher preparation. Any age class of students will benefit from prior study on coastal environments. Contact Information: Private ferry companies will contract to take your group over to the Reserve and back. This will be your only cost and you need to make your own ferry arrangements. For further details on available ferries, call 1-800-SUNNY-NC. 1. To schedule guided field trips, please call or write.
2. To take a self-guided group tour, please advise the Reserve of the date and number attending for our visitation records.
What You Can Expect: A field trip to the estuary is easily incorporated into your curriculum as many NC curricular objectives in science, social studies, and language arts are addressed. After the ferry ride to the Rachel Carson, the interpretive walk begins at a salt panne, where the water comes in on the high tide and is trapped as the tide recedes. As the water evaporates, the salinity may reach 45 ppt (parts per thousand), whereas the ocean is usually 35 ppt. The marsh begins at the edge of the panne. Here students can identify plants such as salt marsh cordgrass, sea ox-eye, sea lavender, glasswort, and black needle rush. The walk across the dredge-spoil island exposes the students to dune colonization by sea oats and plant succession, including wild asparagus and Spanish bayonet. When students emerge onto the tidal flat they find a new wealth of flora and fauna. In addition, students gain a new understanding that an estuary can be a tough place to live. The plants and animals that live in this habitat have a The excursion around the island gives students the chance to investigate the effects of feral horses living on an estuarine island. Students can learn how the horses search out water and food and how they have adapted to the sometimes very harsh environment. This study is particularly valuable for high school biology objectives.
The trip will continue by following the horse trails across the island, allowing groups to see a salt spray canopy, which is the effect salt spray has on trees and vegetation. The shrub thicket includes live oak, red cedar, wax myrtle, and toothache trees, along with a variety of other plants that have taken root in the dredge-spoil of times past. Emerging back on Taylor's Creek, students will walk along another salt marsh/mudflat to return to the boat pick-up point. After completing the field experience, students should be able to:
Our staff looks forward to helping your groups have a successful, memorable and educational field experience at the Rachel Carson Reserve. |
North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve
dapted and
learned to use the change in tides, temperature, turbidity, water depth, and salinty to their advantage. For example, blue crabs need high salinity for their eggs to hatch and
for the juvenile crabs to develop. Yet adults flourish in lower salinity, so you will find the largest crabs in less saline areas of the estuary. Other animals use the shallow
waters of the marsh and mudflat to hide from larger predators. Periwinkles, vegetarian snails that feed on algae growing on the mud and salt marsh grasses, crawl up the grass stems as the tide comes in to escape
being eaten by the fish and crabs that come in with the tide.
Given sufficient time, groups proceed across a tidal flat to
Bird Shoals, which are mostly submerged at high tide. Located just inside Beaufort Inlet between Bogue Banks and Shackleford Banks, this large expanse of a shallow, low
energy sound beach offers students an excellent area for finding sandy bottom dwellers. Locating sand dollars, both shell-remains and living, is exciting for all ages. In
addition, students often discover live cockles, scallops, tube worms, horseshoe crabs, and fish. Occasionally live rays, egg cases of whelks and other shelled mollusks, worms,
and skates can be found. Always students collect shells in this area.
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