Published on SUNDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2003 Amphibious and Ambitious School Project By DORI HARRELL YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC Frog catchers sound a lot like fishermen. "The big one got away." "Ooooh, look, I caught one." "Quick, grab the net. Don't let it get away." And of course, "Frog in!" That's what 29 Zillah High School students shouted Friday afternoon as they captured more than 100 small tree frogs at a pond just a few miles from the campus. They dragged their hands through slimy algae and bulrushes, scooping up frogs in nets as part of the school's CROAK Project, which tracks amphibian populations in the Zillah area. Zillah High School science teacher Jeffrey Charbonneau developed the project, which also includes soil and water testing and computer mapping of the pond. He received a Central Washington University grant to pay for the initial three-year study, plus numerous other grants and donations, including several computers. Total funds amounted to $22,000. But that's not all he received. Charbonneau, a 1996 Zillah High School graduate, recently earned a Golden Apple award from KCTS public broadcasting in Seattle, also the parent station of KYVE in Yakima. The station honors 10 educational individuals and programs each year. He received the recognition for the CROAK project and for helping revitalize the high school's science department. "I was flabbergasted to hear about the award," Charbonneau said Friday while riding on a bus with 29 students to the pond at a nearby orchard. "When KCTS called, I thought it was a mistake. But it's sinking in now." On Friday, the excitement on the bus wasn't due to the award. It was due to the upcoming frog-catching session. The students, mostly sophomores, piled out of the bus, grabbed nets, plastic baggies and hand-held global positioning systems and spaced themselves in teams of four and five around the pond, which measured 160 feet by 60 feet. Once a student nabbed a tree frog, another placed it in a baggie, measured it with calipers and logged its length, gender, and the longitude and latitude of where it was caught. Big frogs started at about 3 centimeters. Frogs with chins darker than their tummies were marked males and frogs whose chins matched their tummies were tagged females. Sara Hollowell, 15, refused to touch the cold-blooded critters and squealed if she even saw one, but she did net a few. A classmate transferred them to the baggies, though. Adriana Mendoza, 16, Amanda Hill, 15, and Melissa Johnson, 16, showed no such fear and captured them with their hands. "It's fun," Hill said. "I like catching the frogs. I like getting out of the classroom and school." The activity also appealed to Justin Rico, 16. "I remember catching frogs with friends as a kid, and it's fun to do hands-on stuff," he said. The hands-on doesn't end at the pond. The students will catch frogs about every two weeks till winter, when frogs burrow and become inactive, similar to hibernation. The kids haul the creatures back to the classroom, where they're weighed. Central Washington University graduate students then inject minuscule tracking tags into the frogs' back legs. They're generally released to the pond the same day they're captured. The study began in spring 2002. "There's not a lot of real research on amphibians in this area because it's a desert," Charbonneau said. He plans to have students write the research articles, which he hopes will be published in scientific journals. "With this," he said, "students get to implement technology into the classroom with a hands-on activity."   Send questions to: Ask@MrCharb.com   MrCharb.com is Copyright Jeff Charbonneau 2001-2006   All Rights Reserved