AHS students teach on TikTok

ALPENA, Mich. — Some Alpena science students found a unique way to adapt their class to the pandemic this year.

This video may be odd, but it’s also a tool for science communication produced by Alpena High School students.

As part of the “Science in the Sanctuary” class, students learn about Alpena’s local ecosystem, then build their creative writing skills by finding creative ways to share that knowledge. This year, students collaborated with the non–profit Huron Pines and studied their bridge construction projects.

These bridges are intended to replace culverts that make life difficult for fish.

Teacher Emilyn Dec explained the problem to WBKB.

“So fish like pike and suckers are not good at jumping and they can’t swim very fast. So, when there’s a culvert, there’s a very small area of water flow and those fish can’t move through.

And unfortunately most of the roadways that we have crossing the several thousand streams that we have in this area are culverts.”

One student, Thaddeus, told WBKB he’s so passionate about the class because it, quite literally, hits close to home.

“You know, some classes, they’ll say ‘oh, you’re never gonna use this ever.’ Well, we live here. So I think it’s kind of important that we know what’s going on around us so we can help our community. And then know what’s going on so we can try and fix it.”

You can look at their website here and watch their videos under the “TikTok” tab on their Instagram page.