By JoANNE VIVIANO

By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Ben Cart's voice came from the other side of the stream.
"Mrs. Catchpole," the seventh-grader called. "Look what we just found."
Julia Catchpole walked over to see the saucer-size turtle in Ben's grip.
Until now, the creature had masked itself among the rocks and stones along the creek bank in the woods at the Montessori School of the Mahoning Valley.
"Where did you find him?" Catchpole asked.
"Over there, by a log," Ben said, pointing to the edge of the stream he had just hopped across.
The discovery Tuesday was a big one for the class of seventh- and eighth-grade science pupils. After all, until now they had found little sign of life in their stream -- only the rock-stuck leeches that are a sign of pollution and one crayfish, about half the size of Catchpole's pinkie finger.
Outdoor lab
The youngsters are part of the Montessori school's new environmental education curriculum. They use the woods as their outdoor laboratory.
With a white tape measure and yellow-corded emergency whistle hanging from his neck, Ben jumped from rock to rock across the stream, bending down from time to time to examine items beneath the water.
He and partner Abby Gerdes, an eighth-grader, are responsible for their own plot of land. It has trees and a portion of the creek, different from an area upstream, where there is a one-foot-deep flood plain, waterfalls and the "orange goop" that fascinates these explorers.
The pupils test soil and water in their plots, with the help of the Mahoning Soil & amp; Water Conservation District, and complete habitat evaluations.
"There's not very much wildlife in the water," Abby said, just before the turtle discovery.
"We found a crayfish last week," said Ben, of Poland. "It was a baby, so there must be a parent."
"We were thinking that was a good sign," added Abby, of Liberty.
The group was measuring the circumference of trees Tuesday in an effort to determine the age of the forest. What they found, Ben said, is that 59 percent of the trees are pretty small.
Developing awareness
Catchpole, a math and science teacher at the school, said the course helps the youngsters develop an awareness of the environment and the ways it is affected by people. The knowledge, she said, will help them as adults when they vote, decide to recycle or bury refuge, discard unused paint, or consider hiring lawn care services or updating a septic system.
The eight-pupil group writes research reports on various items they discover and will present their data this spring to Conservation District workers, Youngstown State University environmental studies groups and others, Catchpole said.
Besides the woods, the new curriculum involves even the youngest pupils, with a separate outdoor area where they interact with a mulched garden and rock area, said school Administrator Diane Gonda. A group of first-graders helped rake and carry mulch to the area Tuesday. Indoors, youngsters have already planted items in pots.
Checking it out
In the woods, seventh-grader Joshua Sikich of Youngstown showed Catchpole a wet rock. Leeches crawled along its side.
"Oh, this is not good. Check this out," he said. "Every time you look under a rock you'll see some, every time you lift one up."
Minutes later, eighth-grader Jon Proch of Canfield ran down to tell her that orange balls from the orange goop are detaching and running down stream.
Ben shows up with a chip of coal, followed by Tom Goldthwait, an eighth-grader from Liberty.
"There's a whole bunch of coal near the orange goop," Tom reports, a camera dangling from his neck.
The pupils recall that Conservation District workers had said that coal might be the cause of the goop.
"These kids are getting excited about the environment and the effect they have on the environment -- and orange goop," Catchpole said. "In the classroom, it would be boring. Half of them would be falling asleep."
viviano@vindy.com