Students get marine biology lesson on Missouri River

A boat ride for summer school students in the Kansas City area isn't a break from class.

Students from Independence are going out on the Missouri River for a lesson in marine biology. It's a component of a wider biology class the students are taking this summer.

Part of the lesson included doing some cleanup work along the river's edge. The students are also learning how interconnected streams, rivers and oceans truly are.

"It affects us not only on the coast, but it affects us in the middle (of the country)," said student Mya Coen. "It opens your eyes to everything around you, everything that happens. There is litter everywhere."

The instructor, Leslie Mallinson, is a marine biology master student who brought back a plastic crate that she found on an Australian beach. Markings on the crate indicated it had been in the Kansas City area.

She said she's been to Australia many times and has never seen anything like it before. She said she has no idea how the crate made its way from Kansas City to the other side of the world.

Follow this link:
Students get marine biology lesson on Missouri River