| Matagorda If one must get grubby to be a good scientist, as naturalist Logan Respess says, then some 10 Texas youths are well on the way to being bona fide researchers. When the kids, all members of Matagorda County 4-H Marine Project Group, boarded the vessel R.V. Karma recently for her maiden voyage as a "floating classroom," plenty of hands joined to sift through the seawater and silt in search of unique critters. "Seeing this (coastal environment) in a book is not the same as actually seeing it and going out to learn about it firsthand," said Logan Respess, marine agent for Texas Cooperative Extension and the Texas Sea Grant Program. "We have a lot of equipment on board to show kids through hands-on activities something they may have seen in class but have never seen up close in its native habitat." Karma, a former shrimp boat given to Texas A&M, has been restored and outfitted to enable naturalists on board to collect samples for teaching either in shallow vats or a microscope that projects onto a television screen. Animals collected for the class are returned to the water after the lessons. The goal, said Willie Younger, marine education specialist for Extension and Sea Grant, is to make the state's coastline seem relevant to students of all ages, even if they live far away from the Gulf. "Whether they live in Lubbock, Amarillo, El Paso or any other place, what they do in their home communities does affect us down here on the coast," Younger said. "And what we do on the coast affects their lives." Younger said the rich coastal environment provides energy and seafood, for example. And the coast receives water from the rivers, streams and various tributaries that pass through farms, cities and industries from the northwestern part of the state to the coast. Respess agreed. "We go out on the water and reinforce or introduce them to a whole other world," he said. "You can tell right away when their faces light up." Respess and Younger showed the kids how to use a plankton net, put some of the concentrated water samples under a microscope in the boat's cabin and then projected the microscope image on a television screen. "They could actually see all the little critters," Respess smiled. "And I said ‘think about that when you are swimming with all that stuff' And they said ‘eeeewwww.' "But then they see the importance of all that stuff and how it drives the ecosystem we have down here and it's not so bad." He said the vessel's crew also took a core sample from the bottom of the waterway, brought it up, and let the children sift through it with their hands. A final dragging of the net that day yielded an eel, a crab, a seatrout and numerous other fish with which to teach the children about adaptations, biodiversity and habitat. "It's always a surprise when you bring the nets in," Younger said. Though some think the Matagorda Bay is polluted and dirty because it is not very clear, Respess said, it is actually pretty clean. "The reason you see it right here looking kind of green is that we have a lot of rivers that empty into the bay near here, the Colorado River empties here and other tributaries empty and that brings a lot of silt, sediment and it stirs up the water," he explained. "But the freshwater and nutrients that flow down from the rivers are driving the system. It is a very productive area." The number of sea critters that were collected attested to that and demonstrated to the children the importance of keeping the waterways healthy. "We all affect the coast whether we live on the coast or not if you live upstream, whether it is water usage so there is less water reaching the coast, or runoff from the suburban areas, or trash issues. The trash winds up on our beaches," he said. Younger invites schools and youth groups to contact him to schedule outings on Karma. He said any or all school subjects – from art to zoology – can be incorporated into the learning experiences on the boat while children experience the environment. Though Karma is headquartered in Matagorda Harbor, Younger said, it may be possible to take the ship to other locations on the Texas coast so that more can experience the floating classroom. For more information, contact Younger at (361) 972-5370, or Respess at (979) 245-4100, . | 
