Citizens for Conservation class looks at creepy crawlers

Posted July 11, 2012 3:49 pm

Submitted by Bonnie Albrecht

Participants of the Citizens for Conservation Creepy Crawler class search Flint Creek Savanna for bugs and insects. Courtesy of Marcy Trojak

The sun shone brightly, and the threat of a morning storm never materialized as Creepy Crawler class attendees hiked through Citizens for Conservation-owned Flint Creek Savanna searching for bugs and insects on a recent Saturday.

The class was one of the Citizens for Conservation’s Youth Education classes celebrating June as Leave No Child Inside month.

Participants of the class learned that there is a difference between bugs and insects — insects have antennae, some bugs do not.

The children saw flies, bees, weevils, dragonflies and damselflies, and they were able to put them into bug magnifiers and see them up close.

One of the children asked why the eyes looked so different, and another boy, Jimmy, offered, “Oh, they are compound eyes.”

Class leaders Meghan Elgan and Mitch Groenhoef, students at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and CFC interns, explained that compound eyes give insects a large field of vision.

They also taught participants that grasshoppers can jump 20 times their own body length. Then Meghan showed the class how far that would be at “our” sizes. Mitch showed the class an easy way to tell the difference between dragonflies and damselflies by the way their wings are at rest. Dragonfly wings rest together pointing upward from the body.

At the end of the walk, the class gathered outside the CFC farmhouse and made spiders to take home out of craft materials and played Bug Bingo.

To learn more about CFC’s Leave No Child Inside-oriented youth classes, visit www.citizensforconservation.org/youth-education or call (847) 382-7283.

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Participants observe creepy crawlers through a magnifying glass during a Citizens for Conservation Leave No Child Inside class. Courtesy of Marcy Trojak

At the end of the Creepy Crawler session, children had the opportunity to make spiders from craft materials. Courtesy of Marcy Trojak

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