Third graders Ryan Burchett, Addison Delazzer and Eliana Gabriel show the progress of an oyster rag pot. It starts as a spike with a wooden square covered by a white rag. Then it is covered in cement and placed at the bottom of a river. Oysters attach to the pot and begin filtering water.
Photo by Liz Ramos
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Damon Moore, the executive director of Oyster River Ecology Inc., held up an oyster rag pot with dozens of oysters attached to it.
He told class after class at Braden River Elementary School that the rag pots and oysters will help clear water pollution as the oysters filter the water.
With the Braden River Elementary School students making 500 oyster rag pots, Moore said those will result in 1,250,000 gallons of water being filtered each day.
"That seems like the whole ocean," said Lucy Wells, a third grader.
The oyster rag pot project was one activity during Everglades Week, in which students learned about various habitats, animals, plants and more that can be found in the Everglades.
Students went straight to work Sept. 12. Each of them grabbed a metal spike, put a square wooden spacer on it and cut a whole into a white rag so they could then place the rag on top of the spacer.
Moore said within a week or two, he would cover the students' pots in cement and once dried, they would be placed at the bottom of a river so oysters could attach to them and begin filtering the water.
Third graders Ryan Burchett, Addison Delazzer and Eliana Gabriel show the progress of an oyster rag pot. It starts as a spike with a wooden square covered by a white rag. Then it is covered in cement and placed at the bottom of a river. Oysters attach to the pot and begin filtering water.
Photo by Liz Ramos
Kindergartners Azavier Williams and Marvin Hendon work together to make their oyster rag pot.
Photo by Liz Ramos
Kindergartner Zander Nooney wears the alligator hat he made with pride as he makes an oyster rag pot. Nooney and his class studied American Alligators as part of Everglades Week.
Photo by Liz Ramos
Damon Moore, the executive director of Oyster River Ecology Inc. shows what the students' oyster rag pots will look like after at least a year as it becomes covered in oysters.
Photo by Liz Ramos
Third grader Mason Stephan shows off the oyster rag pot he created. Braden River Elementary School is creating 500 oyster rag pots, which will help filtrate up to 1,250,000 gallons of water.
Photo by Liz Ramos
Third grader Ethan Boardman finishes another oyster rag pot.
Photo by Liz Ramos
Damon Moore, the executive director of Oyster River Ecology Inc., talks to a class of third graders about oysters during Everglades Week.
Photo by Liz Ramos
Julie Knaus, a third grader, twirls her oyster rag pot around before adding it to the hundreds of others that Braden River Elementary students created for Oyster River Ecology Inc.
Photo by Liz Ramos
An oyster rag pot is covered in oysters after a year and a half. The oysters help clean polluted waters.
Photo by Liz Ramos
Third graders are hard at work created their oyster rag pots.
Photo by Liz Ramos
Third grader Ethan Boardman admires the oyster rag pot. It took about a year and a half for the pot to look this way.
Managing Editor Liz Ramos previously covered education and community for the East County Observer. Before moving to Florida, Liz was an education reporter for the Lynchburg News & Advance in Virginia for two years after graduating from the Missouri School of Journalism.
