(Luci) Okay, you ready to go in the water?

(Saloni) Let's go!

(Logan) [squeals] Welcome to the Indiana Dunes... (Luci) National Park.

You got this, Saloni.

(Desi) We actually have a project called the Dragonfly Mercury Project.

(Logan) Oh, I got a bug.

(Shania) Logan's got one.

(Luci) Oh, this is cool.

(cheerful music) - Major funding for "Sci Girls" is provided by the National Science Foundation.

Supporting education and research across all fields of science and engineering.

The National Science Foundation, where discoveries begin.

Additional funding is provided by the PPG Foundation which aims to bring color and brightness to communities around the world.

(girls) ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S (Izzie) We need you!

(girls) ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S ♪ (Izzie) Come on!

(girls) ♪ When I need help and I've got a question ♪ ♪ There's a place I go for inspiration ♪ ♪ Got to get to the web, check the girls' investigation ♪ ♪ What girls?

♪ SciGirls!

Whoo!

(girls) ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S (Izzie) I need you!

(girls) ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S ♪ Come on!

♪ You've got to log on, post ♪ Upload, pitch in Yeah!

♪ Want to get inside a world that's fascinating?

♪ ♪ The time is right 'cause SciGirls are waiting ♪ (girls) ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S (Izzie) We need you!

(girls) ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S ♪ (Izzie) SciGirls!

Jake, the rain stopped after an entire week.

[sighs exasperatedly] We can finally go outside.

(Jake) Mm, nope.

Something's still missing.

(Izzie) Yeah, I know.

It's sunshine.

Come on.

(Jake) Iz, Fang and I entered the Banana Bread Bonanza Contest.

Tastiest and most creative wins.

I really wanna win this.

(Izzie) You know, fresh air can really spark some new ideas and recipes.

(Jake) Spaghetti, spaghetti.

Let's try spaghetti this time.

[hums] (Izzie) Come on.

Even the best chefs in the world take breaks.

(Jake) Yep, yep.

That's the right amount, mm-hmm.

Ugh.

This is not good.

[groans] Hmm.

Uh, Izzy, can you hand me the pickles?

(Fang) Mm?

Mm-mm.

(Izzie) Ugh.

I think I'm gonna need some help.

You know, I bet the SciGirls will have some ideas.

[music] Hmm, almost.

Close.

Ah, aha, this could work.

[music] (Logan) Straight to the water.

(Luci) We're in the Indiana Dunes National Park.

We're kind of, like, at the very bottom of Lake Michigan.

(Logan) Take our shoes off.

(Luci) It's fun to grow up near Lake Michigan because you get to go on a lot of hikes 'cause there's a lot of trails around.

[gasps] Oh, there was a lizard right there.

Logan, hold on!

(Luci) Indiana Dunes has great hiking trails like the stairs.

There's a lot of different types of ecosystems.

In one place, it'll be all hot and dry and sandy, and then another place, it'll be like a luscious forest.

Uh-oh, watch out for poison ivy.

I'm Luci, I am 12 years old, and I'm going into seventh grade.

(Saloni) Ready?

Ah!

(Logan) My name is Logan, and I live in Gary, Indiana.

(Luci) Okay, you ready to go in the water?

(all) Three, two, one.

(Luci) Me and Saloni and Logan-- we met in fourth grade.

(Logan) Me and Saloni-- we really kicked it off because we came at the same time, but Luci was already there.

(Luci) Oh, I think I got a good one.

(Luci) The dunes in the national park is like the woods behind our school.

(Logan) And our school pretty much has a backyard trail that goes a really long way.

(Luci) What?

(Luci) Oh, cool.

Do you wanna ask my mom about it?

(Logan) Yeah, let's go.

(Luci) Okay.

My mom works for the national park.

She's an entomologist, so she studies bugs.

It's kind of hard to get a picture of him.

(Luci) "Leave no trace" means you just leave the park how it was or better, and you don't take anything from the park.

There you go.

(Saloni) Bye-bye.

(Logan and Luci) Bye!

(Logan) Luci's mom is a national park ranger here at the Indiana Dunes.

(Luci) Hey, Mom.

(Desi) Hey, girls.

(Luci) We found a bug in the dunes today.

Uh, we were wondering if you can identify it.

(Desi) Why don't you take a seat here and, uh, see if we can identify this?

(Desi) Very cool.

That is a type of ground beetle.

You know, we've got all kinds of really cool bugs at the Indiana Dunes.

(Desi) Here's some really pretty moths.

(Luci) Oh, cool.

My favorite parts of her collection were the butterflies and moths 'cause you could see all their wings open.

(Desi) These are my absolute favorites because these are aquatic insects.

Aquatic insects are really, really cool because we can use them to understand how healthy aquatic ecosystems might be.

And so you're probably used to seeing dragonflies like this.

But I'm used to studying them like this.

These are what they look like when they're young.

These are their larvae.

We call them nymphs.

Some of them can live underwater for up to five years before they come out as adults.

(Luci) They live less time above water, flying around as actual dragonflies.

(Desi) Dragonflies are predators, so they are eating other little bugs.

And sometimes, some of the things they might have eaten might be pollutants, things like mercury, things that we don't wanna have in our water.

(Desi) And so we actually have a project, called the Dragonfly Mercury Project, that look at the larvae to find out how much mercury we have in the waters of the national park.

(Logan) Can we help with the project?

(Desi) Absolutely.

Yeah, this is citizen science.

(Luci) Citizen science is where anyone can, like, help out.

(Logan) She said that we were gonna be looking for nymphs.

(Luci) You catch them, and then we send them to scientists to analyze what's inside them.

(Desi) So you guys can get signed up as a volunteer at the park here and, uh, help us to do some really great science.

(Logan) We are gonna become citizen scientists.

And I think it's cool that I get a chance to do this.

[music] (Shania) Hi, girls.

Nice to meet you.

My name is Shania.

I'm a ranger at Indiana Dunes National Park.

Are you excited for today?

(Luci and Saloni) Yeah.

(Logan) Yes.

(Shania) Cool.

(Logan) Today, we're at Great Marsh, and we're gonna go look for nymphs of dragonflies.

(Shania) So there's a few things that you need to know.

So protocol is basically just the procedures and stuff that we follow while we do citizen science.

[music] (Shania) All of you guys will have waders and life jackets.

(Shania) And you'll all have a net.

And then, when we collect the dragonfly nymphs, we're gonna put them individually into a little ice cube tray.

All right, net and net.

(Luci) Thank you.

(Shania) So when you're skimming for dragonflies, you don't wanna go very deep at all.

You're just gonna go, like, right against the surface of the lake and come up like that.

You wanna shake it as you come up.

And then, we're gonna look inside of it.

If we find any, we're gonna put them in these little tiny containers.

(Logan) So protocol is, we have to get at least 20 to test them all.

(Shania) You can step in.

(Logan) Oh, this is cool.

In the water, Ranger Shania had us going in different spots because she told us that when you're already there, then more likely, everything already went away.

(Shania) You gotta look real closely, guys, because they blend in really good.

(Logan) It was hard, especially looking for, making sure you don't touch it, but keeping an eye on it, because they just kept really crawling around.

Oh, I got a bug.

(Luci) Yeah, it's hiding.

It's right there.

It was crawling around.

(Shania) Logan's got one.

(Luci) Yay!

(Logan) Yeah.

(Shania) Now, we're gonna have Desi come in and collect them for us.

(Desi) We don't wanna contaminate this sample.

So I'm the clean glove hand, all right?

So I'm gonna reach in, and I'm gonna grab this dragonfly, and I'm gonna put it in our ice cube tray so that we can bag it up for later.

(Luci) I got a lot of gunk.

(Desi) That's all right.

Sometimes, you gotta look really carefully because the dragonflies, they might be hiding in all these plants and stuff.

And so you just gotta keep looking.

(Luci) I got a shell.

(Logan) I thought it was very hard because it's like, you really have to put your back into it, and dig down in the water and then pull it up with all the seaweed and all the gunk and all that.

(Desi) Oh, my gosh, you guys, Luci got a dragonfly.

(Luci) Yes.

(Desi) Perfect.

(Logan) It's green.

(Desi) Why do you guys think it's green?

(Logan) 'Cause of the water.

(Luci) Exactly.

(Desi) All that stuff.

So remember, you are what you eat.

You guys have heard that?

(Logan) Saloni's got a dragonfly.

(Desi) Right!

(Saloni) Yay.

(Logan) Oh, wait, I think I got one.

I feel really excited, like, that I got one, and I got to see one on my own.

And I thought it was really cool.

(Luci) I think I got one.

(Desi) All right, I'm gonna use my clean glove.

(Luci) We're gonna be at 20 really soon.

[music] (Desi) We are at 19.

One more.

Who's gonna give us our last one?

(Luci) We're hoping Saloni.

(Luci) Oh, I got one.

[bell dinging] (Logan) Yeah!

Go, Luci.

(Shania) Okay, guys, right now, we're gonna take these up there, and then we're gonna bag them.

When we're done, we're gonna rinse off our waders and our nets because we don't wanna bring anything from this body of water to another one.

[music] (Desi) Seal it and put that in the cooler, and take it back to the lab.

[music] (Luci) It was fun because I'm used to, like, collecting bugs, but I've never done dragonfly nymphs, and I've never been in the marsh.

(Shania) Oh!

(Logan) Oh, be careful.

[music] [alarm ringing] [cheers and applause] Bye!

[music] (Logan) This afternoon, we are going to examine and measure the nymphs.

(Logan) What--better is less mercury because it's not good for our water.

(Shania) We'll take out one of these little tags, and we use these to identify the type of dragonfly.

(Luci) We need to know the family of the dragonfly so that we can see if, uh, certain families collect more mercury than others.

(Shania) Now that you guys are done identifying them, we'll put the insect and the tag that we made for it inside of another bag and send it off to the laboratory.

(Luci) It was fun because you get to be a scientist for a day.

(Shania) Well, now that you guys are done with this, the next thing to do is that you guys explore and do some more research, and then share what you found.

[music] (Luci) You got this, Saloni.

(Shania) You're doing great.

(Luci) While we were kayaking, we talked about how you can be a good steward of the environment and ecosystem.

Really?

(Logan) You can't drive.

You're gonna be a horrible driver.

[music] (Shania) So these dunes were formed after the continental glaciers that covered all of this area melted away.

And when they melted, they created the Great Lakes.

(Luci) Ranger Shania told us that all the water flows into Lake Michigan, and all the land around it is part of the Lake Michigan watershed.

(Logan) So we live in the Lake Michigan watershed.

(Shania) When the Great Lakes formed and the water would rise and fall, it would create different environments and ecosystems.

(Luci) So Indiana Dunes National Park-- it's one of the most biodiverse.

(Shania) Because we're so many ecosystems here, this is the birthplace of ecology.

We've got bogs.

We've got marsh and wetlands.

Right over there is dune and swale.

Right next to us is black oak savanna.

(Luci) We were learning about the park while we were kayaking 'cause usually, you would just, like, go out, look at fish.

But we got to learn about the land also, not only the water, but also water quality.

[music] (Logan) I thought that the kayaking was really fun and interesting.

Oh, I'm so sorry!

(Logan) I got splashed with water, and then I splashed Luci with water.

(Luci) I got splashed a lot with her paddle.

Logan.

Logan!

But, uh, it was fun.

[music] (Shania) Careful for the nettle.

(Logan) Today, we're hiking on Little Calumet East River.

(Shania) Since we're by the Little Calumet, we've met a lot of cool species near here.

Some of them are good, some of them are bad.

(Luci) So the Little Calumet River, all the water flows into Lake Michigan and is part of the Lake Michigan watershed.

(Shania) You know how I mentioned earlier that we're a really biodiverse park?

(Saloni) Yeah.

(Shania) So when we have more invasive species, we lose biodiversity because there's more of them than there are our native species.

The park's job is to try our best to get rid of that and replant native species so that we can increase our biodiversity.

(Luci) Invasive species are-- they basically are just plants and animals that, like, don't belong.

(Logan) The non-native species can be more like a bully how they kill other plants.

(Shania) Have you guys gotten rid of any invasive species on your own?

(girls) Yeah.

(Shania) What type?

(Luci) Non-native, uh, bittersweet and English ivy.

(Shania) Okay, guys, let's get going.

(Saloni) Okay.

[music] (Luci) Hi, I'm Luci.

And I like to knit and crochet, so here are two blankets that I have knitted.

I also love to grow plants.

It's like my favorite hobby.

These are a couple propagations that I have.

Hi.

This is another one of my favorite plants.

It's called the UFO plant or, like, the pepperoni plant sometimes.

It's also known as the friendship plant because it grows baby plants and you can, like, cut them out and give them to your friends.

I also love to write poetry.

So this is my poetry notebook.

This is my cat Cosmos.

He's eating.

These are my dogs.

There's Seamus.

He's the old one.

And then there's Colbert.

They love their ball.

Good boy, good boy.

Uh, this is my goat.

Uh, his name is Nibbles.

Hi, hi.

So this is the garden that I helped plant.

They're all vegetables.

And then, these are snap peas, which are in season, so... [crunches] Bye.

[music] So we're at the Shedd Aquarium today, which is a museum near the lake.

(Logan) Hey, lookit, Great Lakes.

(Logan) That's really slimy.

(Luci) The water's really cold, though, but, like-- (Logan) It's cold.

My hands are cold.

(Luci) They're huge.

(Luci) Great Lakes are, like, the largest system of fresh water on Earth.

Water quality was a big one that we learned from the Shedd, and how we need clean water for a safe and healthy environment.

So that tied in with the, um, Great Marsh collecting.

I didn't know that goldfish were invasive.

(Logan) In the gallery about the Great Lakes, we learned about invasive species.

Already, more than 180 invasive animals and plant species have made themselves at home in the Great Lakes.

(Luci) Oh, these are the lampreys.

(Logan) They look like leeches.

Oh, we've seen this.

(Saloni) Yeah.

(Luci) Yeah, I've seen the zebra mussels in Little Calumet even.

[music] There are gardens outside of the Shedd, and, uh, they're all kind of restored habitats.

So there's a lot of native species.

(Logan) Cool, they planted all this milkweed.

This probably used to be all grass.

(Saloni) Yeah.

(Logan) The Shedd Garden-- what it is trying to do is fix the invasive species' damage by replanting and regrowing everything.

(Luci) I think this is sedge.

(Logan) We have a lot of this by the beach.

(Luci) Mm-hmm.

(Logan) Next, we are going to my house to work on a project to share what we learned.

[music] Oh, hi.

My name is Logan.

My favorite hobby is to ride my new scooter.

Another one of my favorite things is to cook.

But right now, I'm cooking me a cheesy omelet.

One of my favorite things to do and favorite sports is soccer.

One of my other favorite things to do is play piano.

[music] [applause] Another of my favorite things to do is drawing.

Now, this is a top ten.

So this is my favorite boy.

His name is Pharoah.

And he's the best boy you could ask for.

Go.

Goodbye!

[music] We are at my house to work on a project to share what we learned.

(Logan) Okay.

(Luci) We chose a scavenger hunt, rather than a poster or, like, presentation, so that people can interactively learn.

(Logan) We're gonna have them look around and find different plants and things around the Douglas Center.

So we'll meet up tomorrow and get this thing done.

(Luci) Okay.

(Jake) What's this?

Ooh, a new recipe?

(Izzie) Yep.

It's a recipe for adventure in your very own backyard ecosystem.

I made you a scavenger hunt.

(Jake) Whoa.

Thanks, Iz.

[clears throat] Floating in the sky, I'm never dry.

Ooh, the clouds.

(Izzie) Yeah, that's it.

So what do you see?

(Jake) [gasps] Banana bread.

(Izzie) Well, I see a dragonfly.

(Jake) Banana cream pie, banana muffins.

Yum!

Banana pancakes.

(Izzie) No, Jake.

Okay, let's try the next one.

Find a furry friend... that you don't already know.

[music] (Jake) I found a bunny!

Aw, are you eating grass?

Yeah?

You're so furry.

Look at you hop away.

(Izzie) Oh, he is so cute.

[sighs] Okay, Jake, last one.

I've got a trunk, but I am not an elephant.

(Jake) [gasps] My tree.

(Izzie) Yes, you got it.

[gasps] Hey, look.

Fang found a pecan.

(Jake) Fang, that's it.

That's the missing ingredient for our banana bread.

[music] (Luci) We decided to come to the Douglas Center to see which things we could have the guests find.

(Logan) We can do ferns.

(Luci) Ferns--there's a lot of them here.

(Logan) Yeah.

(Luci) We're looking for native and invasive species and stuff unique to our park.

(Logan) We can probably do these little flowers.

These would make a really good riddle.

(Luci) I don't know what kind they are, though.

(Logan) Here, let's check it out.

If we're not sure what something is, we're gonna use this app, and it's gonna identify it.

These are woodland sunflowers.

(Luci) They're pretty easy to spot, but there's only a few of them.

(Logan) What's that purple flower?

(Luci) Kind of looks like the bee balm.

(Logan) Let's check it out.

Yep, you're right.

Stop invasive hitchhikers.

Use this boot brush before and after your hike to remove dirt and invasive seeds.

(Logan) We can get this sassafras.

(Saloni) Yeah.

(Luci) Oh, right.

There's three different types of leaves... (Logan) Yep.

(Luci) The mitten, football, and ghost.

(Logan) And we can even tell them, look for mitten, football, and ghost.

(Luci) Oh, we also have to get the purple loosestrife.

I'm excited 'cause we get to see our friends.

And I'm curious how, like, if they'll find all the stuff.

[music] (Logan) Welcome to the Indiana Dunes... (Luci) National Park.

Thanks for coming... [cheering and applause] (Luci) When everybody got here, we told them about the scavenger hunt and our citizen science project.

Also, we've been working on citizen science and learning at the park all week, and we've made a scavenger hunt to share what we've learned.

We've been working on the Dragonfly Mercury Project, which measures mercury levels in the water.

(Logan) We went in Great Marsh.

We collect dragonfly nymphs, and we measure mercury in our water.

(Logan) We want our guests to learn, like, the things that we've learned to make them aware and to show them how they can take care of the land.

This is your scavenger hunt.

(Luci) It's the IN Dunes scavenger hunt.

(Logan) Yes.

Rules for the scavenger hunt.

Work in teams.

Find five things on the list.

If you see, like, a dragonfly or a butterfly, take pictures of it, because you will get a bonus on here.

(Luci) Then we broke into groups and went looking.

(Logan) Ready.

(Luci) Set.

(Logan) Go!

[people shouting] [music] (Logan) I think it went really good.

People did like the scavenger hunt.

(Shania) We have to go find the flower spurge.

(Logan) The flower spurge.

(Luci) Yeah, Erin was, like, a bit competitive.

(Erin) Is this bee balm?

Is this bee balm?

(Logan) And surprisingly, the adults-- they wanted to do it.

'Cause I didn't think they would wanna do it.

(Shania) Just keep looking, Collin.

Point it out if you see it.

(Collin) Right here!

(boy) These?

(Collin) They're white.

They're white.

(adult) Hey, bee balm!

(Logan) I guess my dad thought it was cool because him and then Luci's dad, they were both running along the trail, looking for stuff.

(Marcus) Luci's dad, come on!

(boy) The scavenger hunt was fun.

I found bee balm.

(boy) I think the scavenger hunt was awesome.

(Collin) Me too, yeah.

(girl) I like searching for stuff, and I also like winning.

(Erin) [speaking gibberish] Oak tree, poison ivy, boot brush, oak sapling, bee balm.

(Luci) You guys did it.

Good job.

(Erin) Oh, this is a blast.

Of course, we might have broken the no running rule a little bit.

(Marcus) You know, just to be out here with her-- I mean, it's just a joy to see her out, enjoying nature and learning all these new things.

We had a great time out here.

(Logan) Thank you for coming.

[cheers and applause] I felt good about this, and it's good to teach others new things.

(Marcus) Great job.

(Luci) I hope that they find invasive species that they might have at their house that they might wanna help treat to remove and, like, citizen science.

(Logan) It's good to, uh, be a part of citizen science because you're not only helping scientists, you're helping yourself and your environment around you.

(Shania) I had so much fun on your scavenger hunt today.

You should be really proud of yourselves.

You did really good.

Come visit our park anytime.

Have a great day, guys.

(Luci) You, too!

(Saloni) Bye!

(Shani) Bye!

(Jake) Presenting peekaboo pecan banana bonanza bunny bread!

(Izzie) Oh, yes.

Or, maybe for short, backyard bunny bread.

(Jake) Yeah, that's got a nice ring to it.

Going outside today really helped me invent the tastiest creation.

Thanks, Iz.

(Izzie) And you should also thank your backyard ecosystem.

[laughs] (all) Welcome to Seward!

(Evie) We're surrounded by water and mountains.

(Gracie) Y'all wanna head out there?

(Indigo) Yeah.

(Evie) Let's go.

(Gracie) I'm really excited to do some citizen science.

(Indigo) We saw lots of different shells and plants.

(Gracie) Whoa!

(Krista) Welcome to the Mississippi River.

(Laura) What are some things that end up polluting our watershed?

(Hope) Here's another can.

We are making an art project so it inspires other people to help the environment.

(Krista) It's a team effort.

(all) River rescuers!

(cheerful music) - Major funding for "Sci Girls" is provided by the National Science Foundation.

Supporting education and research across all fields of science and engineering.

The National Science Foundation, where discoveries begin.

Additional funding is provided by the PPG Foundation which aims to bring color and brightness to communities around the world.

[music] ♪ (adult) There's more fun on the SciGirls website.

You can watch videos, play games, and look for creatures in the great outdoors.

See you soon at PBSKids.org (girls) ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S!