Science

Saline County Earth Day Celebration

Friends of the River participates in Lakewood Discovery Center’s county-wide Earth Day Celebration. This day-long event connects area organizations with 4^th grade students to talk about how young people can make a difference in caring for our earth. The Friends leads students in learning how trash gets into the river, “cleaning a river,” and sorting the items into recyclables, reusables, and trash. 

Smoky Hill River Research and Education Symposium

Friends of the River and Kansas Wesleyan University team up to provide area middle school through college age students an opportunity to participate in hands-on science research, from data collection to data analysis, to ultimately sharing their findings with the local science community.  

The purpose of this symposium is to celebrate, encourage, and spotlight student river research. In addition to student research, we would be open to hearing about research conducted on the Smoky Hill River and its surroundings by community members. 

For more information, please contact us at: 785-493-8491 or anneh@smokyhillriver.org 

Graciously Supported By

• The Greater Salina Community Foundation: Thank you for the L. P. “Pat” Mullen Fund grant award which supports not only event day but helps provide equipment for students and supervising teachers to do their research!  
• Kansas Wesleyan University: Thank you for providing the event space, as well as a thank you to Dr. Welter, for helping coordinate the event! 

Fish Finders

The Friends of the River is dedicated to introducing students as well as individuals to what lives in their own Smoky Hill River. Fish Finders is an opportunity to gather for a fun, hands-on field study as we get in the river and sample (catch and identify) fish and critters. We hope that students will discover the joy of doing field science, as well as develop a love and understanding of the animals that make the river their home. This work during this event also helps us track species in our waterway. 

Graciously Supported By

• The Greater Salina Community Foundation: Thank you for jump-starting this program by awarding the Friends a Community Impact Grant, providing for field equipment and the ability to bring in Emporia State University aquatic biologists! 
• Emporia State University: Thank you to aquatic biology faculty, Drs. Rachel Bowes and Erica Martin, who developed identification resources and field notebooks especially created for our section of the Smoky Hill River, as well as provided training and leading our first Fish Finders! 

Long-term River Study

The Friends of the River is in the process of conducting a long-term study of the animals that make the Smoky Hill River in Salina their home. We are working with Kansas Wesleyan University and area schools to involve students in the fun of field work with the end goal of understanding how our fauna changes as our river changes. 

Graciously Supported By

• The Greater Salina Community Foundation: Thank you for making this student centered educational program possible through a Community Impact Grant which allowed us to purchase needed field equipment!