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Rehoboth Elementary students learn about the lake in their backyard

Save Our Lakes Alliance 3 teaches biodiversity of Silver Lake
Victoria Morales Gonzalez, left, and Avery Stark spoon out some tiny creatures found in Silver Lake in Rehoboth Beach. Save Our Lakes Alliance 3 hosted its 14th annual workshop for fifth-graders at Rehoboth Elementary School May 29. The goal was to teach them about the biodiversity of the lake, which is located in the school’s backyard. BILL SHULL PHOTOS
Bill Shull
June 9, 2025

Todd Fritchman started his day scooping up critters from a pond – crayfish, frog larvae and tiny water boatmen, to name a few.

The aquatic biologist and president of Envirotech Environmental Consultants was taking them to Rehoboth Elementary School for the 14th annual Save Our Lakes Alliance 3 workshop.

Fritchman’s role was to turn fifth-graders into scientists for an hour, giving them hands-on experience with the biodiversity of Silver Lake, which is in the school’s backyard.

“Your job is to determine how many macroinvertebrates you find and what they are,” Fritchman told the eager students. “What are these critters going to tell us about an aquatic ecosystem?”

The students crowded around picnic tables and, using spoons, picked through trays of organisms that Fritchman pulled from his pond to compare them to freshly scooped material from Silver Lake.

Their No. 1 question was, “What is that thing?”

The students recorded data, which they took back to their classrooms to learn what their findings mean about the health of Silver Lake.

Fritchman said the the young scientists found the lake had a lot of mayflies and those tiny water boatmen, which point to a healthy ecosystem.

“Based on what we’ve done before, it looks to me like Silver Lake is really doing pretty well compared to years past,” he said.

The fifth-graders will also take field trips to the beach and to the Smyrna Aquatic Center.

Fritchman said it is his experience that one or two kids who take part in the annual workshops will grow up to be aquatic biologists.

 

Kalisa Waples, left, and Alexa Scesa look at a crayfish, one of the many creatures found in Silver Lake.
Ana Nguyen, center holding spoon, helps her team sort through some of the diverse critters pulled from the lake.
Blair Cherico, left, looks at a small catfish that Todd Fritchman is holding. Fritchman is an aquatic biologist and president of Envirotech Environmental Consultants. His presentation gave students a hands-on experience with the diverse ecology of the lake.
Abigail Tatem, Aubrey Wodiska, Za’Mya Finney, Adrianna Castro and Yancy Bolanos had fun learning about the Silver Lake ecosystem.
Ryan Burk, left, and Damianna Clark search a container for some of the creatures found in Silver Lake.
A student takes a closer look at one of the small creatures that was scooped from the lake just for the workshop.
Javion Turnage focuses on examples of the aquatic life that were part of the workshop.
Todd Fritchman said testing shows Silver Lake has good water quality. It is a habitat for a wide variety of wildlife, like this Great Blue Heron, that was hanging out just steps away from the workshop.
Alice Baich, left, Sophie Rowley, right, and their team examined the specimens and wrote down what they observed.
Colton Kroll, Lincoln Wilson and Brody Chandler-Thompson check out some crayfish that Todd Fritchman pulled from a pond.
Todd Fritchman briefs the fifth-graders at the start of the workshop, which was held behind the school, just steps from Silver Lake.
A barn swallow found something in Silver Lake. The little birds are a common site darting around Turtle Bridge.
The fifth-graders who took part in the first workshop of the morning show off tote bags given out by the Save Our Lake Alliance 3. The bags were filled with educational material about our local lakes.

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Bill Shull has been covering Lewes for the Cape Gazette since 2023. He comes to the world of print journalism after 40 years in TV news. Bill has worked in his hometown of Philadelphia, as well as Atlanta and Washington, D.C. He came to Lewes in 2014 to help launch WRDE-TV. Bill served as WRDE’s news director for more than eight years, working in Lewes and Milton. He is a 1986 graduate of Penn State University. Bill is an avid aviation and wildlife photographer, and a big Penn State football, Eagles, Phillies and PGA Tour golf fan. Bill, his wife Jill and their rescue cat, Lucky, live in Rehoboth Beach.

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