Ripple's educators help prepare next generation of environmental stewards

DUNCAN ADAMS

The eyes cross and minds wander.

Speak the word “macroinvertebrate” inside a typical middle school classroom in southwest Montana and that’s what happens.

But introduce students to the wriggling, crawling nymphs of mayflies, stoneflies and the like, retrieved directly from the stones and sediment of once-lifeless Silver Bow Creek, and eyes are more likely to light up.

The clichés would suggest students in southwest Montana have both ready access to a living laboratory and the capacity to turn lemons into lemonade by visiting federal and state Superfund sites.

More often than not, their guides are from Ripple: The Center for Education & Ecosystem Studies.

These watershed educators endeavor to pique the interest of students in grades K-12 to scientific and environmental co