Monday, August 26, 2019

Episode 487 (8-26-19): Calling All Virginia Milkweeds

Click to listen to episode (4:26)

Sections below are the following:
Transcript of Audio
Audio Notes and Acknowledgments
Images
Extra Information
Sources
Related Water Radio Episodes
For Virginia Teachers (Relevant SOLs, etc.).


Unless otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 8-23-19.

TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO

From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of August 26, 2019.

SOUND – ~ 6 sec

This week, the summertime sounds of Green Frogs and cicadas from a Virginia wetland and meadow set the stage for exploring some silent organisms found in those areas: a group of plants that are part of various natural habitats in the Commonwealth, while also supporting insects that migrate hundreds or thousands of miles annually.  Have a listen for about 20 seconds to several guest voices calling out some common names in this plant group, and see if you know the group.  And here’s a hint: combine the words for a dairy cow’s product and a plant considered out of place.

VOICES - ~20 sec – “Butterfly Weed. Clasping. Common. Few-flower. Four-leaf. Green Comet. Long-leaf. Purple. Red. Swamp. Tall. White. Whorled.”

If you guessed milkweeds, you’re right!  Those were the common names of 13 milkweed species native to Virginia, part of over 100 species native to North America or Central America.  Most species in Virginia are found in meadows, dry forests, pastures, and other relatively dry habitats across the Commonwealth.  But five Virginia species are associated with streamside or wetland habitats; these include the Few-flower, Long-leaf, Purple, Red, and Swamp milkweeds.

Named for their milky sap, milkweeds typically provide large amounts of nectar that attract many insects; one subfamily of butterflies, for example, is commonly known as the milkweed butterflies.  On the other hand, milkweeds contain chemicals that are toxic to some insects and other animals. Both of these aspects of milkweeds contribute to the plants’ well-known association with Monarch Butterflies.  Monarchs—which are noted for their long annual migrations to and from Mexico—depend on various milkweed species as habitat and food for their larvae.  The Monarch also benefits from the toxins in the milkweeds, which render the butterflies distasteful to predators.

In the human realm, some milkweeds have long been used as herbal medicine; for example, both Common Milkweed and Butterfly-weed have been used for lung diseases. That history is reflected in the scientific name of the milkweed genus, Asclepias, which is derived from the name Asklepios, the Greek god of medicine.

Thanks to several Blacksburg friends for lending their voices to this episode.  And in recognition of milkweeds’ connection to Monarchs and other butterflies, we close with part of “The Butterfly,” an adaptation of a traditional Irish tune, by Timothy Seaman of Williamsburg.

MUSIC - ~17 sec - Instrumental

SHIP’S BELL

Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  For more Virginia water sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call the Water Center at (540) 231-5624.  Thanks to Ben Cosgrove for his version of “Shenandoah” to open and close the show.  In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water.

AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to neighbors in Blacksburg, Virginia, for recording milkweed common names on August 7, 2019.

The Green Frog and cicada sounds were recorded on August 15, 2015, at a wetland near Toms Creek at Heritage Park in Blacksburg, Va.

“The Butterfly,” from the 2004 CD “Virginia Wildlife,” is copyright by Timothy Seaman and Pine Wind Music, used with permission.  More information about Timothy Seaman is available online at http://www.timothyseaman.com/.  The “Virginia Wildlife” CD was a collaboration between Mr. Seaman and the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries to celebrate Virginia’s natural resources and support non-game wildlife programs.

Click here if you’d like to hear the full version (2 min./22 sec.) of the “Shenandoah” arrangement/performance by Ben Cosgrove that opens and closes this episode.  More information about Mr. Cosgrove is available online at http://www.bencosgrove.com.

IMAGES

Common Milkweed near Toms Creek in Heritage Park, Blacksburg, Va., July 7, 2019.


Swamp Milkweed in a wetland along the Huckleberry Trail in Montgomery County, Va., July 13, 2019.



Two images above: Monarch Butterfly migration patterns in fall (upper) and spring/summer (lower). Images from the U.S. Forest Service; maps from the U.S. Geological Survey National Atlas; accessed online at https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/Monarch_Butterfly/migration/index.shtml.

EXTRA INFORMATION ABOUT MILKWEEDS IN VIRGINIA

Following are the common and scientific names and typical habitat of species of milkweed native to Virginia and called out in this episode.  All of these are species in the genus Asclepias (abbreviated as “A” in the list below).  The habitat information is quoted from the Alan S. Weakley et al., Flora of Virginia, 2012, (see Sources section below for full details on that reference).

Butterfly Weed, A. tuberosa – Dry woodlands, clearings, fields, pastures, and roadsides. Common throughout [Virginia].”
Clasping Milkweed, A. amplexicaulis – “Dry acidic forests, sandy woodlands, clearings, old fields, and roadsides. Frequent in the Coastal Plain and Piedmont; infrequent in the mountains.”
Common Milkweed, A. syriaca – “Fields, pastures, roadsides, and other open, disturbed habitats. Common throughout [Virginia].”
Few-flower Milkweed, A. lanceolata – “Freshwater to oligohaline [brackish, or slightly salty] tidal marshes; most frequent in wind-tidal marshes of ….far southeastern Virginia. Infrequent in the Coastal Plain.” [For information on wind-tidal marshes, see Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, “The Natural Communities of Virginia/Wind-Tidal Oligohaline Marshes,” online at https://www.dcr.virginia.gov/natural-heritage/natural-communities/ncea3.]
Four-leaf Milkweed, A. quadrifolia – “Mesic [moderately moist] to dry forests and woodlands. Frequent on various substrates in the mountains; infrequent and more restricted to base-rich soils in the Piedmont.”
Green [or Green Comet] Milkweed, A. viridiflora – Dry soil of fields, pastures, and roadsides; occasionally in dry rocky woodlands and barrens…. Frequent in the Piedmont and low-elevation mountain valleys; rare elsewhere.”
Long-leaf Milkweed, A. longifolia – “Bogs and sphagnous power-line swales. Rare in the southern Coastal Plain and adjacent outer Piedmont, south of the James River.”
Purple Milkweed, A. purpurascens – “Openings in floodplain forests, wet meadows and clearings, stream banks, upland depression swamps, and clay flatwoods… Infrequent to rare throughout [Virginia].”
Red Milkweed, A. rubra – “Bogs, sphagnous power-line swales, and seeps. Rare in the Coastal Plain and outer Piedmont.”
Swamp Milkweed, A. incarnata – “River and stream shores, wet fields, and meadows. Frequent in the mountains; rare in the Piedmont and Coastal Plain.”
Tall Milkweed, A. exaltata – “Mesic to dry forests, clearings, and meadows; most common in middle to higher elevations. Common in the mountains; rare in the inner Piedmont.”
White Milkweed, A. variegata – Mesic to…dry, upland forests, borders, clearings, and old fields. Frequent in the Coastal Plain and Piedmont; infrequent in mountains.”
Whorled Milkweed, A. verticillata – “Dry woodlands, barrens, clearings, and rock outcrops… Infrequent in the mountains and Piedmont; rare in the Coastal Plain.”

SOURCES

Used for Audio

Biota of North American Program (BONAP), online at http://bonap.net/Napa/TaxonMaps/Genus/County/Asclepias.

Jason Bittel, “Monarch Butterflies Migrate 3,000 Miles—Here's How,” National Geographic, 10/17/17, online at https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/10/monarch-butterfly-migration/.

Butterflies and Moths of North America, “Family Nymphalidae (Brush-footed Butterflies),” online at https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/taxonomy/Nymphalidae.  [This family includes 11 subfamilies, one of which is Danainae (Milkweed Butterflies); this site lists 22 species in that subfamily, including the Monarch.]

Rebecca Chandler, “Monarch Lookalikes and How to Tell the Difference,” Save Our Monarchs, 4/17/18, online at https://www.saveourmonarchs.org/blog/monarch-lookalikes-and-how-to-tell-the-difference.

Encyclopedia Britannica, “Asclepiadoideae Plant Subfamily,” online at https://www.britannica.com/plant/Asclepiadoideae; and “Milkweed Butterfly,” online at https://www.britannica.com/animal/milkweed-butterfly.

Alan S. Weakley et al., Flora of Virginia, Foundation of the Flora of Virginia Project, Inc., Richmond, Va., 2012.

Grow Milkweed Plants, “Milkweeds,” online at https://www.growmilkweedplants.com/milkweeds.html.

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, “Native Plants Database/Asclepias,” online at https://www.wildflower.org/plants/search.php?search_ield=Asclepias&family=Acanthaceae&newsearch=true&demo=.

Marion Lois Lobstein, “There and Back Again: A Short Taxonomic History of Milkweed,” Virginia Native Plant Society, undated, online at https://vnps.org/princewilliamwildflowersociety/botanizing-with-marion/there-and-back-again-a-short-taxonomic-history-of-milkweed/.

George Lohmiller and Becky Lohmiller, “Common Milkweed: Uses and Natural Remedies,” The Old Farmer’s Almanac, 7/8/19, online at https://www.almanac.com/content/common-milkweed-uses-and-natural-remedies.

Monarch Watch, online at https://monarchwatch.org/bring-back-the-monarchs/milkweed/.

Monarch Joint Venture, online at https://monarchjointventure.org/get-involved/create-habitat-for-monarchs.

Monarch Joint Venture and U.S. Forest Service, “Plant Milkweed for Monarchs,” online (as PDF) at https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/Monarch_Butterfly/documents/MilkweedInfoSheet.pdf.

National Wildlife Federation, “Milkweed for Monarchs,” online at https://www.nwf.org/Garden-for-Wildlife/About/Native-Plants/Milkweed.

Science Museum Brought to Life, “Asklepios,” online at http://broughttolife.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/asklepios.

Virginia Watson, “Michoacan History,” undated, published by USA Today, online at https://traveltips.usatoday.com/michoacan-history-23923.html. [Michoacán de Ocampo, in west-central Mexico, is renowned as a winter location for Monarch butterflies.]

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, “Five Super Stops on Monarch Migration Trail,” 79/18, online at https://www.fws.gov/refuges/news/FiveSuperStopsMonarchMigration.html.  [The Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge is one of stops discussed; information on that refuge is available online at https://www.fws.gov/refuge/eastern_shore_of_virginia/.]

U.S. Forest Service, “Monarch Butterfly Migration and Overwintering,” online at https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/Monarch_Butterfly/migration/index.shtml.

U.S. Forest Service, “Plant of the Week” series:
“Butterfly Milkweed” (Butterfly-weed), by Larry Stritch, undated, online at https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/asclepias_tuberosa.shtml;
“Common Milkweed,” by David Taylor, undated, online at https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/asclepias_syriaca.shtml;
“Green Comet Milkweed,” by David Taylor, undated, online at https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/asclepias_viridiflora.shtml;
“Purple Milkweed,” by Tania Hanline, undated, online at https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/asclepias_purpurascens.shtml;
“Swamp Milkweed,” by Forest Russell Holmes, undated, online at https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/asclepias_incarnata.shtml.

Virginia Native Plant Society/David M. Lawlor, “Imperiled Purple Milkweed at Huntley Meadows Park,” 4/10/16, online at https://vnps.org/imperiled-purple-milkweed-at-huntley-meadows-park/.

For More Information about Plants in Virginia and Elsewhere

U.S. Department of Agriculture/Natural Resources Conservation Service, “Plants Data Base,” online at https://plants.usda.gov/.

Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation/Natural Heritage Division, “Invasive Plant Species of Virginia,” online at http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/natural-heritage/invspinfo.

Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, “Fish and Wildlife Information Service/Monarch Butterfly,” online at https://vafwis.dgif.virginia.gov/fwis/booklet.html?&bova=100079&Menu=_.Taxonomy&version=18128.

Virginia Native Plant Society, online at http://vnps.org/.  This organization provides information about native species and natural plant habitats. Located at 400 Blandy Farm Lane, Unit #2, Boyce, VA 22620; (540) 837-1600.

Virginia Tech Dendrology, online at http://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/.  This is the Web site for the dendrology course by Dr. John Seiler in Virginia Tech’s Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation.  The site offers identification keys and fact sheets to trees and other woody plants throughout North America.  This site also information on VTree, a mobile-phone app for tree identification, at http://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/vtree.htm.

RELATED VIRGINIA WATER RADIO EPISODES

All Water Radio episodes are listed by category at the Index link above (http://www.virginiawaterradio.org/p/index.html).  See particularly the “Insects” and “Plants” subject category.

FOR VIRGINIA TEACHERS – RELATED STANDARDS OF LEARNING (SOLs) AND OTHER INFORMATION

The episode—the audio, extra information, or sources—may help with the following Virginia Standards of Learning (SOLs).

2013 Music SOLs

SOLs at various grade levels that call for “examining the relationship of music to the other fine arts and other fields of knowledge.”

2010 English SOLs

Reading Theme
6.4 and 7.4 – meanings of unfamiliar words, including word origins and derivations.

2010 Science SOLs

Grades K-6 Earth Resources Theme
4.9 – Va. natural resources, including watersheds, water resources, and organisms.
6.9 – public policy decisions related to the environment (including resource management and conservation, land use decisions, hazard mitigation, cost/benefit assessments).

Grades K-6 Life Processes Theme
K.7 – basic needs and processes of plants and animals.
1.5 – animals’ basic needs and distinguishing characteristics.
2.4 – life cycles.
3.4 – behavioral and physiological adaptations.
4.4 – basic plant anatomy and processes.

Grades K-6 Living Systems Theme
2.5 – living things as part of a system, including habitats.
3.5 – food webs.
3.6 – ecosystems, communities, populations, shared resources.
4.5 – ecosystem interactions and human influences on ecosystems.

Life Science Course
LS.8 – community and population interactions, including food webs, niches, symbiotic relationships.
LS.10 – changes over time in ecosystems, communities, and populations, and factors affecting those changes, including climate changes and catastrophic disturbances.
LS.11 – relationships between ecosystem dynamics and human activity.

Biology Course
BIO.8 – dynamic equilibria and interactions within populations, communities, and ecosystems; including nutrient cycling, succession, effects of natural events and human activities, and analysis of the flora, fauna, and microorganisms of Virginia ecosystems.

Virginia’s SOLs are available from the Virginia Department of Education, online at http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/.

Following are links to Water Radio episodes (various topics) designed especially for certain K-12 grade levels.

Episode 250, 1-26-15 – on boiling, for kindergarten through 3rd grade.
Episode 255, 3-2-15 – on density, for 5th and 6th grade.
Episode 282, 9-21-15 – on living vs. non-living, for kindergarten.
Episode 309, 3-28-16 – on temperature regulation in animals, for kindergarten through 12th grade.
Episode 333, 9-12-16 – on dissolved gases, especially dissolved oxygen in aquatic habitats, for 5th grade.
Episode 403, 1-15-18 – on freezing and ice, for kindergarten through 3rd grade.
Episode 404, 1-22-18 – on ice on ponds and lakes, for 4th through 8th grade.
Episode 406, 2-5-18 – on ice on rivers, for middle school.
Episode 407, 2-12-18 – on snow chemistry and physics, for high school.
Episode 483, 7-29-19 – on buoyancy and drag, for middle school and high school.

Friday, August 16, 2019

Episode 486 (8-19-19): Recalling the August 1969 Camille Catastrophe in Nelson County

Click to listen to episode (4:27)

Sections below are the following:
Transcript of Audio
Audio Notes and Acknowledgments
Images
Sources
Related Water Radio Episodes
For Virginia Teachers (Relevant SOLs, etc.).


Unless otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 8-16-19.

TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO

From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of August 19, 2019. This is a revised version of an episode from December 2013.

MUSIC – ~9 sec – instrumental.

This week, we feature a Virginia’s band’s music about land, water, and romance along one of the Old Dominion’s most famous geographic features.  The music also has echoes of an enormous and tragic flood event that took place 50 years ago this week.  Have listen for about 45 seconds.

MUSIC - ~ 46 sec – 0:30 to 1:12 and fade instrumental – “My mind is dark and troubled, with clouds coming low. When the bottle gets to empty, I know where to go. I take the old dirt road, beneath the scarred mountainside, and in the Rockfish River water, my loneliness subsides. The boots stomp along in perfect time; whiskey on her lips, she’s always on my mind. Of all the treasures in this world, I’ll take the nighttime, and my Blue Ridge girl.”

You’ve been listening to part of “Blue Ridge Girl,” by Chamomile and Whiskey, on the 2013 album “Wandering Boots,” from County Wide Records.  The band formed in Nelson County, a scenic and historic area whose dominant geographic influence is the Blue Ridge Mountains.  The Blue Ridge is also the place of origin for the Rockfish River, a James River tributary mentioned in the song.

Another phrase in the song—“beneath the scarred mountainside”—brings to mind the devastating and lingering effects of Hurricane Camille in 1969.  On August 19 of that year—two days after that category five hurricane’s deadly landfall along the Gulf Coast—Camille’s remnants became concentrated along the Blue Ridge in Nelson County, producing an official total of 27 inches of rain overnight in the Rockfish River basin and the adjacent Tye River basin.  The intense rains created flash floods, landslides, and flows of mud, vegetation, structures, and other materials.  The storm caused over 100 deaths in Nelson and left behind eroded slopes, altered channels, and debris that remain decades later.

Shaped by Camille’s power as well as countless other natural events and centuries of human activities, Nelson County’s Blue Ridge lands and waters continue today as primary influences on lives, livelihoods, and culture.

Thanks to Chamomile and Whiskey for permission to use this week’s music, and we close with about 25 more seconds of “Blue Ridge Girl.”

MUSIC – ~26 sec – instrumental.

SHIP’S BELL

Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  For more Virginia water sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call the Water Center at (540) 231-5624.  Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek to open and close this show.  In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water.

AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This Virginia Water Radio episode revises and replaces Episode 192, 12-16-13.

“Blue Ridge Girl” and “Wandering Boots” are copyright by Chamomile and Whiskey and by County Wide Records, used with permission of Chamomile and Whiskey.   More information about Chamomile and Whiskey is available online at http://www.chamomileandwhiskey.com/, and information about Charlottesville-based County Wide Records is available online at http://countywidemusic.worldsecuresystems.com/.

Click here if you’d like to hear the full version (1 min./11 sec.) of the “Cripple Creek” arrangement/performance by Stewart Scales that opens and closes this episode. More information about Mr. Scales and the group New Standard, with which Mr. Scales plays, is available online at http://newstandardbluegrass.com.

IMAGES

Illustration of the path of Hurricane Camille, from the U.S. Department of Commerce/Environmental Science Services Administration, “The Virginia Floods: August 19-22, 1969,” September 1969, online (as PDF) at https://www.weather.gov/media/publications/assessments/Virginia%20Floods%20August%201969.pdf.


Landslide above Davis Creek, a tributary of the Rockfish River, near Lovingston in Nelson County, Va., resulting from remnants of Hurricane Camille in August 1969. Image from U.S. Geological Survey, “Flood of August 1969 in Virginia,” Open-file Report 70-15, 1970; online (as PDF) at https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1970/0051/report.pdf.


Graph of daily mean stream flow, or discharge, in cubic feet per second (cfs) from August 18—August 23, 1969, at the U.S. Geological Survey gaging station on the Rockfish River near Greenfield in Nelson County, Va. Note the levels of as much as 30,000 cfs on August 20. Graph accessed at U.S. Geological Survey, National Water Information System, “USGS 02028500 ROCKFISH RIVER NEAR GREENFIELD, VA,” online at https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/dv?referred_module=sw&site_no=02028500. As of August 16, 2019, the historical mean discharge for August 20 at that location is 439 cfs (based on records since 1942). For a table of daily mean flow values at the Rapidan River gage near Ruckersville, see USGS Surface Water Daily Statistics for Virginia, online at http://waterdata.usgs.gov/va/nwis/dvstat/?referred_module=sw; table of daily mean discharge for Greenfield site is online at this link.



Two photos above: Scenes from the Rockfish River in normal-flow times.  Upper photo—the Rockfish River's confluence with the James River (background), where the Virginia counties of Albemarle, Buckingham, and Nelson converge, July 2009.  Lower photo: the Rockfish River on County Route 634 in Nelson County, Va., March 3, 2018.

SOURCES

Used for Audio

Jeffrey Halverson, “Unprecedented rain: Hurricane Camille’s deadly flood in the Blue Ridge mountains,” Aug. 19, 2013, in The Washington Post, online at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2013/08/19/unprecedented-rain-hurricane-camilles-deadly-dlood-in-the-blue-ridge-mountains/.

Robert Hopper and Julie Still, “Assessment of the Rockfish River in Nelson County, Virginia,” Oct. 18, 2004, for the Virginia Water Resources Research Center/STEP Program.  For access to this report, please contact the Virginia Water Center at (540) 231-5624 or water@vt.edu.

Kevin Myatt, “Camille’s remnants devastated Nelson County,” Aug. 14, 2019, in The Roanoke Times, online at https://www.roanoke.com/news/virginia/weather-journal-camille-s-remnants-devastated-nelson-county/article_7a4a6f44-14eb-5efe-9443-59abe694b6e2.html.

Nelson County Government, online at http://www.nelsoncounty-va.gov.

Lisa Provence, “Flooded with memories: Nelson County 37 years after Camille,” Sep. 21, 2006, in The [Charlottesville] Hook, online at
http://www.readthehook.com/79908/cover-flooded-memories-nelson-county-37-years-after-camille.  This article includes several historical photos.

Lisa Romano, “Hurricane Camille (August 1969),” Sep. 9, 2010, in Virginia Foundation for the Humanities’ Encyclopedia Virginia, online at http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Hurricane_Camille_August_1969.

For More Information about Hurricane Camille and its Impacts

National Hurricane Center and Central Pacific Hurricane Center, “Hurricanes in History,” online at https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/outreach/history/.

National Weather Service Mobile-Pensacola, “Hurricane Camille—August 17, 1969,” August 2019, online at https://www.weather.gov/mob/camille.

Lynchburg News & Advance, “Looking back at Hurricane Camille, 50 years later, ”August 9-18, 2019.  This is a series of articles and photographs.

U.S. Department of Commerce/Environmental Science Services Administration, “The Virginia Floods: August 19-22, 1969,” September 1969, online (as PDF) at https://www.weather.gov/media/publications/assessments/Virginia%20Floods%20August%201969.pdf.

U.S. Geological Survey, “Flood of August 1969 in Virginia,” Open-file Report 70-15, 1970; online (as PDF) at https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1970/0051/report.pdf.

Garnett P. Williams and Harold P. Guy, “Erosional and Depositional Aspects of Hurricane Camille in Virginia, 1969,” U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Professional Paper 804, 1973, online at https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/pp804.

RELATED VIRGINIA WATER RADIO EPISODES

All Water Radio episodes are listed by category at the Index link above (http://www.virginiawaterradio.org/p/index.html).  See particularly the “Weather/Natural Disasters” subject category.

Following are links to some other episodes on flooding in Virginia.

Episode 272, 6-29-15 – on the 1995 floods in Madison County.
Episode 328, 8-8-16 – on flash flooding in general, featuring “Rain in the Valley” by the Steel Wheels.
Episode 442, 10-15-18 – on the high water marker for the New River at Radford.

FOR VIRGINIA TEACHERS – RELATED STANDARDS OF LEARNING (SOLs) AND OTHER INFORMATION

The episode—the audio, extra information, or sources—may help with the following Virginia Standards of Learning (SOLs).

2013 Music SOLs
SOLs at various grade levels that call for “examining the relationship of music to the other fine arts and other fields of knowledge.”

2010 Science SOLs

Grades K-6 Earth Resources Theme 3.10 – impacts on survival of species, including effects of fire, flood, disease, and erosion on organisms.
4.9 – Va. natural resources, including watersheds, water resources, and organisms.
6.9 – public policy decisions related to the environment (including resource management and conservation, land use decisions, hazard mitigation, cost/benefit assessments).

Grades K-6 Interrelationships in Earth/Space Systems Theme
4.6 – weather conditions, phenomena, and measurements.

Grades K-6 Living Systems Theme
6.7 – natural processes and human interactions that affect watershed systems; Va. watersheds, water bodies, and wetlands; health and safety issues; and water monitoring.

Earth Science Course
ES.12 – weather and climate.

2015 Social Studies SOLs

Virginia Studies Course
VS.1 – impact of geographic features on people, places, and events in Virginia history.
VS.10 – knowledge of government, geography, and economics in present-day Virginia.

World Geography Course
WG.2 – how selected physical and ecological processes shape the Earth’s surface, including climate, weather, and how humans influence their environment and are influenced by it.
WG.3 – how regional landscapes reflect the physical environment and the cultural characteristics of their inhabitants.

Virginia’s SOLs are available from the Virginia Department of Education, online at http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/.

Following are links to Water Radio episodes (various topics) designed especially for certain K-12 grade levels.

Episode 250, 1-26-15 – on boiling, for kindergarten through 3rd grade.
Episode 255, 3-2-15 – on density, for 5th and 6th grade.
Episode 282, 9-21-15 – on living vs. non-living, for kindergarten.
Episode 309, 3-28-16 – on temperature regulation in animals, for kindergarten through 12th grade.
Episode 333, 9-12-16 – on dissolved gases, especially dissolved oxygen in aquatic habitats, for 5th grade.
Episode 403, 1-15-18 – on freezing and ice, for kindergarten through 3rd grade.
Episode 404, 1-22-18 – on ice on ponds and lakes, for 4th through 8th grade.
Episode 406, 2-5-18 – on ice on rivers, for middle school.
Episode 407, 2-12-18 – on snow chemistry and physics, for high school.
Episode 483, 7-29-19 – on buoyancy and drag, for middle school and high school.

Monday, August 12, 2019

Episode 485 (8-12-19): Trout in a Patrick County, Va., Classroom

Click to listen to episode (4:17)

Sections below are the following:
Transcript of Audio
Audio Notes and Acknowledgments
Images
Extra Information
Sources
Related Water Radio Episodes
For Virginia Teachers (Relevant SOLs, etc.).


Unless otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 8-12-19. 

TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO


From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of August 12, 2019.  This week, to mark the start of the school year, we repeat a September 2018 episode on a classroom program about aquatic life, water quality, and local watersheds. 

SOUND – ~ 4 sec – Smith River – Jan. 15, 2017


This week, that sound of the Smith River at Jacks Creek Covered Bridge in Patrick County, Va., opens an episode about fish in schools, but in this case, it’s human schools.  Have a listen for about 60 seconds to a guest voice, and see if you know what learning program about finned creatures is taking place.  And here’s a hint: it starts in a classroom and ends up getting students out. 

VOICE - ~60 sec


February 2018: “Now when you guys first received your trout, back in December, what were they?  They were babies, right?  They were actually called ‘eggs’ at that point. … Now at about six months old, they’re about three-to-four inches long, and this is when they are released into the river environments.  For you guys, you 3rd and then the older 6th and 7th [graders], will be releasing your trout.


April 2018: “All right, good morning everyone…. You guys have raised your trout to fingerlings, which is about the third stage of the life cycle, and you are going to release them into the Smith River. ... Do you have any questions about your trout before we release them? I know we’ve already talked about the life cycle and all of that stuff at school. … And we’re gonna walk slowly up the river… So just take it nice and easy, and we’ll walk up and release them.  And when you get over there to release your trout, make sure you lean down close to the river and gently release it into the stream.”


If you guessed, Trout in the Classroom, you’re right!   You heard Krista Hodges, the education manager for the Dan River Basin Association, giving a trout life cycle presentation in February 2018 at Patrick County’s Woolwine Elementary School, and then leading Woolwine students in releasing trout fingerlings into the Smith River in April 2018.  The Association coordinates the Trout in the Classroom program in southern Virginia, while chapters of Trout Unlimited, the organization that began the program, bring it to schools in other parts of Virginia and across the United States.  For over 20 years nationwide and over 10 years in Virginia, the program has helped provide elementary, middle school, and high school students with learning experiences about fish and other aquatic organisms, water quality, and local watersheds.

Thanks to Krista Hodges and to students at Woolwine Elementary School for making the recordings used in this episode, and we let two Woolwine 7th-graders have some closing words about the value of the Trout in the Classroom program.

VOICES - ~ 19 sec

Boy: “It gives you the experience that you see the fish in their actual habitat instead of just in a tank.”

Girl: “I will always think about these fish. I will always think about how good they’re doing, how much they like their new home, and I’ll definitely come back and visit them.”

SHIP’S BELL

Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  For more Virginia water sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call the Water Center at (540) 231-5624.  Thanks to Ben Cosgrove for his version of “Shenandoah” to open and close the show.  In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water.

AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Virginia Water Radio episode repeats and replaces Episode 439, 9-24-18.

The Trout in the Classroom in-school sounds were recorded by Krista Hodges in February 2018 at Woolwine Elementary School in Patrick County, Va.  The trout-release sounds were recorded by Ms. Hodges on April 10, 2018, at the Smith River at Jacks Creek Covered Bridge, also in Patrick County, near the school.  Virginia Water Radio thanks Ms. Hodges and students at Woolwine Elementary School for recording these sounds and allowing their voices to be used in this episode.

Click here if you’d like to hear the full version (2 min./22 sec.) of the “Shenandoah” arrangement/performance by Ben Cosgrove that opens and closes this episode.  More information about Mr. Cosgrove is available online at http://www.bencosgrove.com.

IMAGES

The two photos immediately below show Woolwine Elementary School students releasing trout fingerlings into the Smith River in Patrick County, Va., on April 10, 2018.  Photos by Krista Hodges, used with permission.




The three photos immediately below show the three species of trout found in Virginia waters: Brook Trout, Brown Trout, and Rainbow Trout. Brook Trout is the only native species; the other two species are widely established.


Brook Trout.  Photo by Ryan Hagerty, made available for public use by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Digital Library, online at http://digitalmedia.fws.gov, accessed 8-12-19.  The specific URL for this photo is https://digitalmedia.fws.gov/digital/collection/natdiglib/id/23439/rec/2.


Brown Trout.  Photo by Robert Pos, made available for public use by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Digital Library, online at http://digitalmedia.fws.gov, accessed 8-12-19.  The specific URL for this photo is https://digitalmedia.fws.gov/digital/collection/natdiglib/id/11808/rec/1.


Rainbow Trout.  Photo by Ryan Hagerty, made available for public use by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Digital Library, online at http://digitalmedia.fws.gov, accessed 8-12-19. The specific URL for this photo is https://digitalmedia.fws.gov/digital/collection/natdiglib/id/28510/rec/52.

EXTRA INFORMATION ABOUT TROUT MANAGEMENT IN VIRGINIA

The following information is from the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, “Trout Management Program,” online at https://www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing/trout/.

“Trout management in Virginia consists of three basic programs.

“The Catchable Trout Stocking Program (or “Designated Stocked Trout Waters, online at https://www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing/trout/catchable-trout-stocking-program/) is the best known and most popular.  ‘Designated Stocked Trout Waters’ are stocked from October through May with catchable-sized trout.  See the Trout Stocking Plan (online at https://www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing/trout/) for the streams and lakes stocked and their stocking schedule.

“The Wild Trout Program (online at https://www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing/trout/wild-trout-program/) includes the management of reproducing populations of brook, rainbow, and brown trout. Efforts are directed primarily at habitat preservation and proper regulation for protection of spawning stocks.

“The Fingerling Trout Stocking Program (online at https://www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing/trout/fingerling-stocking-program/) involves stocking sublegal trout into waters that have cold summer water temperatures and a good food source.  This is the smallest of the three programs, but includes many of our high quality, special regulation trout fishing waters.”

SOURCES

Used for Audio

Dan River Basin Association, online at http://www.danriver.org/programs/environmental-education/for-educators.  Information on the DRBA Trout in the Classroom program is online (as a PDF) at http://www.danriver.org/content/danriver/uploads/infoabouttroutintheclassroomforwebsite.pdf.

Sara Gregory, Tiny trout make a giant leap from classroom tank to Roaring Run, with a little help, Roanoke Times, 4/12/17.

Trout Unlimited, “Trout in the Classroom,” online at http://www.troutintheclassroom.org/.

Trout Unlimited Chapters in Virginia, online at https://www.tu.org/connect/chapter-search?name=&city=&state=VA&proximity=25&zip=&commit=Search.

Virginia Council of Trout Unlimited, online at http://virginiatu.org/; their “Trout in the Classroom” page is online at https://www.virginiatu.org/copy-of-conservation.

For More Information about Trout in Virginia

Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, “Fish and Wildlife Information Service,” online at http://vafwis.org/fwis/?Title=VaFWIS+Species+Information+By+Name&vUT=Visitor.

Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, “Trout Fishing Guide,” online at https://www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing/trout/.

Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, “Virginia Fishes,” online at https://www.dgif.virginia.gov/wildlife/fish/. This site has links for Brook Trout, Brown Trout, and Rainbow Trout.

RELATED VIRGINIA WATER RADIO EPISODES

All Water Radio episodes are listed by category at the Index link above (http://www.virginiawaterradio.org/p/index.html).  See particularly the “Fish” subject category.

Following are links to other episodes on the Smith River.

Episode 360, 3-20-17 – Who Were Smith and Philpott and What Do They Have to Do with Virginia Water?
Episode 447, 11-19-18 – Discovering Virginia's Covered Bridges for Thanksgiving Week 2018.

FOR VIRGINIA TEACHERS – RELATED STANDARDS OF LEARNING (SOLs) AND OTHER INFORMATION

This episode may help with the following Virginia 2010 Science SOLs.

Grades K-6 Scientific Investigation, Reasoning, and Logic Theme
2.1, 3.1, 4.1, 5.1, and 6.1: Current applications to reinforce science concepts.

Grades K-6 Earth Resources Theme
4.9 – Va. natural resources, including watersheds, water resources, and organisms.
6.9 – public policy decisions related to the environment (including resource management and conservation, land use decision, hazard mitigation, cost/benefit assessments).

Grades K-6 Life Processes Theme
2.4 – life cycles.

Grades K-6 Living Systems Theme
2.5 – living things as part of a system, including habitats.
3.5 – food webs.
3.6 – ecosystems, communities, populations, shared resources.
4.5 – ecosystem interactions and human influences on ecosystem.
6.7 – natural processes and human interactions that affect watershed systems; Va. watersheds, water bodies, and wetlands; health and safety issues; and water monitoring.

Life Science Course
LS.1 – understanding of scientific reasoning, logic, and the nature of science, including current applications to reinforce science concepts.
LS.6 – ecosystem interactions, including the water cycle, other cycles, and energy flow.
LS.8 – community and population interactions, including food webs, niches, symbiotic relationships.
LS.9 – adaptations for particular ecosystems’ biotic and abiotic factors, including characteristics of land, marine, and freshwater environments.
LS.10 – changes over time in ecosystems, communities, and populations, and factors affecting those changes, including climate changes and catastrophic disturbances.
LS.11 – relationships between ecosystem dynamics and human activity.

Biology Course
BIO.1 – current applications to reinforce science concepts.
BIO.2 – water chemistry and its impact on life processes.
BIO.4 – life functions (including metabolism and homeostasis) in different organism groups, including human health, anatomy, and body systems.
BIO.8 – dynamic equilibria and interactions within populations, communities, and ecosystems; including nutrient cycling, succession, effects of natural events and human activities, and analysis of the flora, fauna, and microorganisms of Virginia ecosystems.

Virginia’s SOLs are available from the Virginia Department of Education, online at http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/.

Following are links to Water Radio episodes (various topics) designed especially for certain K-12 grade levels.

Episode 250, 1-26-15 – on boiling, for kindergarten through 3rd grade.
Episode 255, 3-2-15 – on density, for 5th and 6th grade.
Episode 282, 9-21-15 – on living vs. non-living, for kindergarten.
Episode 309, 3-28-16 – on temperature regulation in animals, for kindergarten through 12th grade.
Episode 333, 9-12-16 – on dissolved gases, especially dissolved oxygen in aquatic habitats, for 5th grade.
Episode 403, 1-15-18 – on freezing and ice, for kindergarten through 3rd grade.
Episode 404, 1-22-18 – on ice on ponds and lakes, for 4th through 8th grade.
Episode 406, 2-5-18 – on ice on rivers, for middle school.
Episode 407, 2-12-18 – on snow chemistry and physics, for high school.
Episode 483, 7-29-19 – on buoyancy and drag, for middle school and high school.

Monday, August 5, 2019

Episode 484 (8-5-19): True Flies, or Dipterans, are Abundant, Adaptive, and (in Some Cases) Annoying or Worse

Click to listen to episode (4:32)

Sections below are the following:
Transcript of Audio
Audio Notes and Acknowledgments
Images
Sources
Related Water Radio Episodes
For Virginia Teachers (Relevant SOLs, etc.).


Unless otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 8-5-19.

TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO

From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of August 5, 2019.  This is a revised repeat of an episode from July 2014.

MUSIC – ~ 11 sec

This week, that excerpt of “Little Brown Bats Eating Mosquitoes,” by Timothy Seaman of Williamsburg, Va., opens a an episode about large, diverse group of insects, some of whose sounds you probably hate to hear on a summer day or night.  Have a listen for about 30 seconds to three kinds of mystery sounds, distinguishable among various other nature sounds, and see if you can guess this group of insects.  And here’s a hint: water rhymes with swatter.

SOUNDS - ~29 seconds

If you guessed flies, you’re right!  You heard, first, the buzzing of one of several species commonly called gnats, second, the buzzing of a deer fly, and third, the whine of a mosquito.  Scientists include these and many other insect species in the taxonomic order of Dipterans, or true flies, characterized primarily by having only two wings as adults.  True flies have a life cycle of complete metamorphosis through four stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult.  While most true fly species are terrestrial, for many species—in fact, about 3500 species in North America—a watery environment is required for the larva and pupa stages of their life cycle.  The aquatic habitat for some species is a moist or wet area on land; other species develop in streams, ponds, or other water bodies.  Perhaps the most well-known true-fly water connection is mosquitoes breeding in all kinds of standing water, from salt marshes to water-filled tree holes to discarded tires.

Deerflies buzzing; mosquitoes biting and transmitting disease; gnats swarming—for these and other behaviors, many true flies are truly hard to like.  But one can at least appreciate two important ecological roles played by true flies: recycling nutrients by breaking down various materials, from manure on land to leaves in streams; and providing food for bats, birds, fish, frogs, and other animals.  In vast numbers in water, on land, and in the air, true flies have vast impacts.

Thanks to Timothy Seaman for permission to use this week’s music, and we close with a few more seconds of “Little Brown Bats Eating Mosquitoes.”

MUSIC – ~ 18 sec

SHIP’S BELL

Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.  For more Virginia water sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call the Water Center at (540) 231-5624.  Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek to open and close this show.   In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water.

AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This Virginia Water Radio episode revises and replaces Episode 221, 7-7-14.

Virginia Water Radio thanks Eric Day, Virginia Tech Department of Entomology, for providing information for this episode.

The sounds used in this episode were recorded by Virginia Water Radio as follows:
gnats in Blacksburg, Va., on 6/29/14;
deer fly in Blacksburg on 7/3/14;
mosquitoes beside Pandapas Pond in Montgomery County, Va., on 8/8/17.

“Little Brown Bats Eating Mosquitoes,” from the 2004 CD “Virginia Wildlife,” is copyright by Timothy Seaman and Pine Wind Music, used with permission; this music was previously used as the feature of Episode 78, 9-5-11, and in Episode 263, 4-27-15 on bats and water.  Mr. Seaman’s Web site is http://www.timothyseaman.com/.  The “Virginia Wildlife” CD was a collaboration between Mr. Seaman and the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries to celebrate Virginia’s natural resources and support non-game wildlife programs.  “Little Brown Bats Eating Mosquitoes” was composed in honor of Virginia’s Non-Game Wildlife Tax Check-off.  Information about Virginia’s program for contributions to organizations and programs through tax check-offs is available online at http://www.tax.virginia.gov/content/voluntary-contributions.

Click here if you’d like to hear the full version (1 min./11 sec.) of the “Cripple Creek” arrangement/performance by Stewart Scales that opens and closes this episode.  More information about Mr. Scales and the group New Standard, with which Mr. Scales plays, is available online at http://newstandardbluegrass.com.

IMAGES

Deer fly collected from a wooded area in Blacksburg, Va., July 3, 2014.


Three out of four parts of the complete-metamorphosis life cycle in a true fly: clockwise from left are a mosquito larva, two pupae, and adult.  Collected from a roadside puddle in Blacksburg, Va., June 23, 2009.  Micrograph (70x) taken on 7-7-14, courtesy of Eric Day, Virginia Tech Department of Entomology.


Larvae and pupae of the mosquito Aedes vexans in a puddle in a tire track on the Virginia Tech campus, June 10, 2009.  Image first published in Virginia Water Central Newsletter, June 2009, online at https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/49357.  Thanks to Dr. Sally Paulson, Virginia Tech Entomology Department, for identifying the mosquito species.

SOURCES

Used for Audio

BugGuide.net, http://bugguide.net/node/view/15740.

W. Patrick McCafferty, Aquatic Entomology: The Fishermen's and Ecologists' Illustrated Guide to Insects and Their Relatives (Chapter 16: Midges, Mosquitoes, Aquatic Gnats and Flies), Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Toronto, 1998; available online at http://books.google.com/books?id=wiTq7x-fI_0C&dq=aquatic+gnats&source=gbs_navlinks_s.

R. W. Merritt and K.W. Cummins, eds., An Introduction to Aquatic Insects, 2nd Edition, Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, Dubuque, Ia., 1984.

North Carolina State University, “General Entomology/Diptera,” online at http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/course/ent425/library/compendium/diptera.html.

Ohio State University Extension, “Midges and Crane Flies,” Fact Sheet HYG-2129-91. Online in July 2014 at http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2129.html; not found online on 8-5-19.

Ann Posegate, The scoop on gnats: the weather they like & why they drive us nuts, Washington Post, 7/26/11.

Purdue University Extension, “Black Flies,” online at https://extension.entm.purdue.edu/publichealth/insects/blackfly.html.

University of Florida Department of Entomology, “Featured Creatures” Web site, http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/.

Voshell, J. Reese, Jr., Guide to Common Freshwater Invertebrates of North America, McDonald & Woodward Publishing, Blacksburg, Va., 2002.

For More Information about True Flies or Other Insects

Alan Raflo, David Gaines, and Eric Day, “Mosquitoes and Water,” Virginia Water Central Newsletter, June 2009, pp. 6-15 (Virginia Water Resources Research Center, Blacksburg, Va.), online at https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/49357.

Vincent H. Resh and Ring T. Cardé, eds., Encyclopedia of Insects, 2nd Edition, Elsevier Academic Press, Burlington, Mass., 2009.

Virginia Tech Department of Entomology Insect Identification Lab, online at http://www.insectid.ento.vt.edu/.

RELATED VIRGINIA WATER RADIO EPISODES

All Water Radio episodes are listed by category at the Index link above (http://www.virginiawaterradio.org/p/index.html).  See particularly the “Insects” subject category.

Following are links to some other episodes on true flies.

Episode 268, 6/1/15 – on Chironomids (non-biting midges).
Episode 78, 9/5/11 – on bats and mosquitoes, featuring “Little Brown Bats Eating Mosquitoes” by Timothy Seaman.
Episode 259, 3/30/15 – on avian malaria research.
Episode 381, 8/14/17 – on waterside night sounds.

FOR VIRGINIA TEACHERS – RELATED STANDARDS OF LEARNING (SOLs) AND OTHER INFORMATION

The episode—the audio, extra information, or sources—may help with the following Virginia Standards of Learning (SOLs).

2013 Music SOLs

SOLs at various grade levels that call for “examining the relationship of music to the other fine arts and other fields of knowledge.”

2010 Science SOLs

Grades K-6 Scientific Investigation, Reasoning, and Logic Theme
1.1, 2.1, 3.1, 4.1, 5.1, and 6.1 – Current applications to reinforce science concepts.

Grades K-6 Earth Patterns, Cycles, and Change Theme 3.9 – Water cycle, including sources of water, energy driving water cycle, water essential for living things, and water limitations and conservation.

Grades K-6 Earth Resources Theme
4.9 – Va. natural resources, including watersheds, water resources, and organisms.

Grades K-6 Life Processes Theme
1.5 – animals’ basic needs and distinguishing characteristics.
2.4 – life cycles.
3.4 – behavioral and physiological adaptations.

Grades K-6 Living Systems Theme
2.5 – living things as part of a system, including habitats.
3.5 – food webs.
3.6 – ecosystems, communities, populations, shared resources.
4.5 – ecosystem interactions and human influences on ecosystem.
6.7 – natural processes and human interactions that affect watershed systems; Va. watersheds, water bodies, and wetlands; health and safety issues; and water monitoring.

Life Science Course
LS.1 – understanding of scientific reasoning, logic, and the nature of science, including current applications to reinforce science concepts.
LS.4 – organisms’ classification based on features.
LS.6 – ecosystem interactions, including the water cycle, other cycles, and energy flow.
LS.8 – community and population interactions, including food webs, niches, symbiotic relationships.
LS.9 – adaptations for particular ecosystems’ biotic and abiotic factors, including characteristics of land, marine, and freshwater environments.
LS.11 – relationships between ecosystem dynamics and human activity.

Biology Course
BIO.1 – current applications to reinforce science concepts.
BIO.6 – bases for modern classification systems, including structures, biochemistry, and developmental stages.
BIO.8 – dynamic equilibria and interactions within populations, communities, and ecosystems; including nutrient cycling, succession, effects of natural events and human activities, and analysis of the flora, fauna, and microorganisms of Virginia ecosystems.

Virginia’s SOLs are available from the Virginia Department of Education, online at http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/.

Following are links to Water Radio episodes (various topics) designed especially for certain K-12 grade levels.

Episode 250, 1-26-15 – on boiling, for kindergarten through 3rd grade.
Episode 255, 3-2-15 – on density, for 5th and 6th grade.
Episode 282, 9-21-15 – on living vs. non-living, for kindergarten.
Episode 309, 3-28-16 – on temperature regulation in animals, for kindergarten through 12th grade.
Episode 333, 9-12-16 – on dissolved gases, especially dissolved oxygen in aquatic habitats, for 5th grade.
Episode 403, 1-15-18 – on freezing and ice, for kindergarten through 3rd grade.
Episode 404, 1-22-18 – on ice on ponds and lakes, for 4th through 8th grade.
Episode 406, 2-5-18 – on ice on rivers, for middle school.
Episode 407, 2-12-18 – on snow chemistry and physics, for high school.
Episode 483, 7-29-19 – on buoyancy and drag, for middle school and high school.