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Today’s Environmental Almanac comes to you courtesy of students from Whitney Stewart’s class at Franklin Middle School in Champaign. This Fall, some of Stewart’s eighth graders have been working with University of Illinois students enrolled in a service learning program called Community Stewardship through Environmental Education, which is offered cooperatively by Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant Program, the UI Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, and the Center for Teaching Excellence.
Through this program, the university students have taught the school children about some of the invasive species that are disrupting aquatic ecosystems in Illinois, and collaborated with them on stewardship projects designed to create public awareness about these creatures.
Some of the students from Franklin chose to communicate their messages in songs, which were recorded for radio thanks to WILL audio producer Jason Croft. First up, a Zebra Mussel rap:
Clogging up my drain,
nothing up my brain,
they keep reproducing,
they all look the same.
They clogging up the shower,
reproducing to the tenth power.
Killing all the natives, this is an invasion,
they're unstoppable like terminator salvation
Black and white stripes looking like a clam,
Can we get rid of them? Like Obama, “yes we can.”
Sitting on the beach, razor sharp and thin,
Step on me and imma cut yo skin.
Make sure to clean your boat,
Hose them down make them drown in the moat.
Next, a Zebra Mussel song to the tune of "Single Ladies."
All the Zebra Mussels (all the Zebra Mussels)
All the Zebra Mussels (all the Zebra Mussels)
All the Zebra Mussels (all the Zebra Mussels)
All the Zebra Mussels (Now put your clams up!)
Jump on the boat, clog up them pipes then
turn off them lights. Acting up, salt in my cup,
something that I like. Even though we small,
we can clog them all, and you can't get rid of us.
Chorus: We came from Eastern Europe, and now we're in America!
And you can't even STOP us & if you don't like us wash your boat.
HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! (Wash your boat)
So how do you stop us? You may ask. For there are many ways.
Wash your boat with hot water, 104 degrees and let it dry 5 days and nights,
it will kill us all.
- Chorus –
Other Franklin students involved in the Community Stewardship program crafted visual messages to raise awareness about aquatic invasive species, including the four-panel cartoon and the illustration of a sea lamprey reprinted here.
Pat Weatherhead the lead instructor for the course in which the UI students are enrolled, has been pleased with the results of the partnership with local schools. "I'm delighted that the kids incorporated the science content they learned from the UI students and developed such creative and innovative approaches to educate the public about this important issue."
