MEXICO, NY – A total of 150 Mexico Middle School students in early October spent about four hours exploring and investigating Lake Ontario plus one of its tributaries, the Little Salmon River.
A dozen Department of Environmental Conservation staff joined grade seven science teachers Mrs. Alicia Archer and Mrs. Hope Pelton to present six learning stations throughout the park. Students participated in a beach cleanup, land and water assessments, water chemistry and an aquatic insect investigation.
“The goal was to deepen understanding of the Lake Ontario ecosystem and to promote stewardship of our local natural resources,” Archer said. “Even I was surprised to learn that Lake Ontario is considered under the most ‘stress’ out of all the Great Lakes.”
Stressors of lakes include coastal development, overfishing, invasive species and agricultural and urban pollutants, Archer said. She added that a recent study by SUNY Oswego found 80 percent of the fish they caught in Lake Ontario were found to have microplastics in them.
The student summit event was a collaboration between Cornell University, NY Sea Grant, NYS Parks and the DEC. Officials told students Lake Ontario has the most plastic pollution of the five Great Lakes, and it is targeted for more research in 2023.
Middle school students removed more than 1,000 pieces of plastic trash during their beach cleanup, stopping them from entering Lake Ontario.
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