FIELD BIOLOGY STUDENTS HELP SAVE MOBILE BAY

As biology teacher Barry McPhail drives a busload of Field Botany students on a fieldtrip, he darts off the interstate and slams on the breaks.

His students perk up, but realize nothing is wrong. They know abrupt roadside stops are customary. McPhail has spotted an exotic bird. And he wants everyone onboard to see it. After the students have identified the heron and have popped their heads back through the windows, McPhail pulls the bus back onto the highway.

Off they go to McPhail's gigantic, outdoor classroom ­ Mobile Bay.

Each year, McPhail leads students to Mobile Bay, where they conduct field research to quantify man's impact on the environment. On this cold January day, McPhail¹s class will be collecting water samples to measure the impact that runoff from the streets and yards of Daphne and Spanish Fort have on water quality in the Bay.

"Studying this habitat means that the ASMS science program is relevant to current environmental concerns," says McPhail, who has been teaching at ASMS for 10 years. "Mobile Bay is economically, culturally, and ecologically important to the greater Mobile area, and its large size gives me the opportunity to expose students to a wide range of biodiversity."

Last year McPhail¹s Field Biology and Ecology classes put considerable effort into creating a bathymetric map of the bay¹s bottom. This involved kayaking around the bay and measuring its depth with a long pole. The measurements will be catalogued and used to study sedimentation levels. In the future, McPhail¹s classes will employ a global positioning system (GPS) to revisit locations where the first measurements were taken in order to track sedimentation levels over time.

"By actually going into the bay, I now have a better idea about why it's important to constantly monitor mankind's impact on the environment," says senior Scott Goodfriend. "This research has shown me that it's essential to balance man¹s needs with nature¹s needs. Plus, it's just fun out there."

McPhail says that the Mobile area is an ideal place for biological education because there are so many diverse habitats within a short distance: hardwood swamps, freshwater marshes, salt marshes, savannas, dunes and beaches, as well as the major estuary, Mobile Bay.

To McPhail, leading his students on research expeditions is important for a number of reasons. First, he says, "It allows students to be immersed in nature rather than simply seeing pictures in class or on TV. Our direct experience of nature teaches us many things which may be difficult for us to isolate and impossible to achieve in a classroom setting."

McPhail also says that this field research makes environmental education much more immediate and personally relevant to his students because they are studying things that are important to the community at large.

McPhail is also keenly interested in Mobile Bay's future. He is hoping that one day his field research will help the area better take care of Mobile Bay.

"Its future sustainability depends on how we treat it," he says. "What value is our society willing to put on a healthy, functioning ecosystem? What will be the unintended consequences of our carelessness? Having said that, the estuary is very resilient and there is a surprising amount left considering the last three centuries of man and his impacts."

Because ASMS students are future decision makers, McPhail says it is important to instill a sense of environmental stewardship within the people he teaches.

"When you live in a spaceship it's easy to see the danger of randomly damaging your life support equipment," he says. "To sustain our culture over the next centuries, it will be important for we humans to realize that the earth is just a very large spaceship. We are incapable of destroying the earth but we are perfectly capable of making it very difficult for our descendents to have good lives on it."