High school students learn about dangers of shrinking Great Salt Lake
Oct 27, 2022, 7:03 PM | Updated: Oct 28, 2022, 6:12 am
SALT LAKE CITY — Students from the west side of Salt Lake City took a field trip to Antelope Island Thursday to see the expanding lakebed of the Great Salt Lake.
It can leave a lasting impact and an appreciation for the outdoors, especially when things aren’t quite right.
Kevin Perry from the Utah Rivers Council told the students, “There are now 800 square miles of lakebed that is exposed because the water has gotten so low.”
You don’t have to be a regular visitor to notice.
“Yeah, and boats used to be able to go around right here and they’re not no more,” Nayeli Lazareno said. She was one of the students from the Horizonte Instruction and Training Center to visit the lake.
She asked, “Are they still using it? Like the farmers, are they still using the water?”
“Yeah, they are,” answered Perry.
“Wow.” was Lazareno’s reaction.
This field trip happened in large part to Nisie Antacle a math and science teacher.
She wanted students to consider an important question. “How does the Great Salt Lake’s health affect my own students’ lives and their health and their community’s health?”
Antacle wanted students to see it and talk about the potential for future dust storms.
“That’s super scary. It’s going to make our pollution very bad,” Lazareno said.
Antacle believes these kids can take part in some important change. “I really hope and I feel personally an urgency to do that,” she said.
This trip was a part of a new focus on project-based learning at the school.
Teachers are hopeful students can take part in making PSAs and other messages to the community about the health of the Great Salt Lake.
