On January 28, 2025, the Potomac Science Center had the pleasure of hosting Congressional Representative Eugene Vindman (VA-7) and his staff for a tour of the facility. PEREC Director Dr. Chris Jones led the tour, and Rep. Vindman met members of the many labs housed at PSC. Thank you to Rep. Vindman, his team, Ron Aira from GMU’s Creative Services, and the many lab members around PSC who shared their research with everyone!
Meet Anna Siegle, an incredible alumna of George Mason University who graduated in the spring of 2023. With a degree concentration in Conservation, Anna has many valuable and exciting experiences under her belt as an early-career conservationist.
Prior to graduating, Anna attended the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation (SMSC) in Front Royal, Virginia and participated in the Endangered Species Conservation (ESC) program. During her five-week research placement, she worked alongside GMU’s Dr. Daniel Hanley in the Hanley Color Lab investigating the floral color diversity in the vision of pollinators. Anna described her time at SMSC as an “incredible and unique opportunity,” having made many long-term connections with experts in the conservation field and participated in various experiential projects and activities. She also expressed how it was great to be in close community with other conservation-focused students and receive one-on-one attention from SMSC professors. At the Fairfax campus, Anna said her applied and lab courses were helpful in preparing her for a career in conservation, and she especially enjoyed the beekeeping course.
In the fall of 2023, Anna was hired as a field interpreter for the Meaningful Watershed Education Experience (MWEE) team. She led stations on land use, macroinvertebrate identification, water quality, and biodiversity, teaching seventh grade students about the many aspects of their watershed. She shared that this position taught her how to communicate scientific topics to a wider audience, and she valued the hands-on experience of teaching students in the outdoors.
After her time as a field interpreter, Anna traded her fall jacket for a sunhat and traveled across the world to Africa. For seven weeks, she worked as an intern with Save the Elephants in Tsavo, Kenya. One of the main goals of Save the Elephants is to assist local farmers with installing deterrents for elephants. Through this internship, Anna was able to combine her lifelong love for elephants with her passions for endangered species conservation, beekeeping, human-wildlife conflict mitigation, and community outreach. She learned about and implemented different tools to keep elephants away from farms that commonly consist of maize and green gram crops. These deterrents line the perimeter of the farm, including tools such as rags soaked in chili and used engine oil, or loud metal paneling that alerts farmers so they can scare off the elephants. However, one of the main deterrent tools are African bees. Colonies constructed along the perimeter of a farm keep elephants from entering and trampling or eating crops, creating a unique and sustainable method for keeping farmers, crops, and elephants safe. As an intern, Anna frequently inspected hives for occupancy, engaged with farmers, maintained data reports, and even joined a team of experts for a day of tracking elephants using collars and radio telemetry. “It changed my life,” Anna said of her time in Kenya. “I would love to work for Save the Elephants again.”
So, what’s next for Anna? With her passion for both wildlife and people, she said she would like to work with a non-profit and focus on human-elephant interactions. Her future is certainly bright!
As the days grow shorter and colder, another successful season for George Mason’s field interpreters has wrapped up for the year. The Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences program, or MWEE, has employed over 350 mason students since its creation in 2010. Initially funded by the Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) program, MWEEs play an important role in the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration’s mission for a more environmentally literate and compassionate public. Mason students play a huge part – not only as educators, but as friendly, energetic, and effective communicators who inspire youth to get engaged in nature. Since 2009, PEREC field Interpreters have engaged and inspired >150,000 middle school students!
This hands-on, outdoor position hires every spring and fall, and provides an array of crucial, unique experiences that can really bolster an environmental science resume. Positioned at either Lake Burke or Accotink parks, an average day for a MWEE interpreter means a part-time, fast paced shift working rain or shine on any day during the week.
The materials and plans for four stations are provided – and it’s up to the interpreter to bring those lessons to life, at times improvising content and thinking on their feet to match the unique needs of each 7th grader that experiences the program.
In “Land Use,” students learn how our use of the terrain has changed its physical features, and how that impacts the movement of storm water and consequent erosion.
The “Watershed Organisms” station, meanwhile, introduces students to biodiversity. An interpreter leading this station might start the day by flipping logs or looking for interesting leaves and mushrooms to give kids a peek at some of the plants and wildlife at the parks!
Kids get a chance to meet aquatic critters up close and personal at the “Macro-invertebrates” station.
Or, at “Water Quality,” put their chemistry skills to the test and collect data.
For many 7th graders, their time at MWEE might be their first exposure to a fully forested park – many students were shocked to see parasitic plants, giant slugs, little isopods, chatty woodpeckers, and loads of other unique flora and fauna!
MWEE interpreters don’t just work with kids, but with each other – each season, we have a cast of kind and hard-working people who value team spirit and help with cleaning and set-up, and provide feedback, support, and just friendly chatter! Interpreters are trained alongside the Fairfax Park Authority, which leads their own MWEE stations at other parks – providing a county-wide opportunity for local schools to get outdoors.
If you have visited Potomac Science Center recently, you may have noticed our brand-new Mural Sediment to Sky, the brain child of Dr. Cindy Smith which has been brought to life by Mason Art student Nadya “Bella” Steare, under the auspices of “Murals at Mason”. This new mural is part of long running efforts by Dr. Cindy Smith to ensure that Potomac Science Center hosts exhibits that can teach the public about our research when no staff is present to explain them.
The top or Sky portion of the staircase mural highlights native trees and the ever-present bald eagle as well as shadows of geese flying over the river. Artwork on each stair riser depicts study organisms and tools of Potomac Science Center researchers. The goal was to evoke the feeling that one was descending into to the Potomac River as they descend the steps into our exhibit hall,
like an osprey from the sky into to the Potomac River, through the water column inhabited by fish and water fleas, and ending in the benthic depths as they descend the steps into our exhibit hall. Taking a sharp left turn at the bottom of the stairs, one encounters a wall mural, an idyllic scene of marsh fauna and students sampling, featuring many of the tools which we use to study freshwater ecosystems.
Murals at Mason will produce more permanent signage in the near future, however temporary signage is viewable now. Many will recognize the local floral and fauna which they often spot on the Occoquan. We also suggest a scavenger hunt, with visitors searching for our various research tools, such as nets, drones, sondes, and remote operated vehicles. All of these help us collect scientific knowledge for a multitude of research studies.
We are very pleased with how the Murals at Mason team worked closely with the researchers at Potomac Science Center, repeatedly providing drafts, into which we added our favorite organisms and our most used research tools, something rarely included in nature murals. Another unique aspect of this mural is that as the sun rises and moves across the river and through the windows, different organisms are highlighted and hidden in the shadows on the staircase.
Written by Wren Bell, class of 2022
Hi, my name is Wren Bell and I graduated from Mason in December 2022 with a major in environmental science and policy concentrating on ecological science with minors in conservation studies and computer science.
I first got interested in stream ecology when we watched a video showing a stream scientist standing in waders, chest deep in the stream, in Dr. Smith’s Biomes and Human Dimension’s class. She said, “This is my lab, in the water” and I said to myself “That’s what I want my future to be” After that, I took Dr. Fowler’s Aquatic Invertebrate Ecology class, and that confirmed for me that I wanted work with these amazing organisms. Our class went out to Cape Charles where we collected red algae, and it had a diversity of invertebrates like isopods, crabs, and worms living on it. It was like each piece had its own tiny ecosystem. It was such a great experience to see how much life is actually out there and even the tiniest creatures need to be protected. They are such foundational parts of our ecosystems that most people don’t ever think about. In my microbiology class with Dr. Salerno, we swabbed random areas in our building and put it on streak plates. It was so cool to use techniques that can highlight so much life that is invisible to our eyes.
I am now working for Prince William County’s Watershed Management Division as a field technician. We go out and monitor restored and unrestored streams, looking at macroinvertebrates, structure, stream chemistry, and sometimes we do wetland delineations. Using professional equipment, meeting with county stakeholders, and getting paid to play with bugs, is just so awesome!
When I was a kid, we didn’t learn much outdoors or have programs like PEREC’s Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience, with whom I’m also working with part-time. I want kids to know how amazing the earth is, and that they too can get paid to do stuff in the streams and not all jobs require sitting in an office all day.
Also, I’ve always advocated for people with disabilities, especially people like me who rely on mobility devices to get around. I want them to see me doing this job. I am very visible with my disability because I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to work in these fields. Because I’m an ambulatory wheelchair user, which means I can still walk, I do not always need my wheelchair. This gives me the privilege and access to many opportunities that would ordinarily be closed off to a full-time wheelchair user. I want others to know that they too can be a scientist or ecologist, regardless of physical ability. I am working to make these jobs more accessible for everyone and spread awareness that disabled people are still extremely valuable to the environmental movement. Workplaces not only need to make their positions accessible to those with disabilities but be openly welcoming to them as well. I’ve talked with many disabled people who feel like environmental science is completely inaccessible to them, despite their passion and interest. But there are so many ways to get involved that can be tailored to your specific needs and limitations.
You don’t have to be able to run a long distance or trek through a mountainside to be an environmentalist. The only requirement is passion.
Written by Dr. Chris Jones
On New Year’s Day this year, the Potomac Environmental Research and Education Center lost an important ally who was with us from the birth of the idea for Potomac Science Center until its construction at Belmont Bay in Woodbridge in the mid-2010’s. This is a good time to reflect on the life of Preston C. Caruthers and how PSC and PEREC were born.
I had the privilege of knowing Preston since the early 1990’s. A veteran developer from Arlington, Preston acquired property on the tidal Occoquan River in about 1990 and set about developing a waterfront community that was modelled in his mind after Porto-Vecchio in Corsica, a community with shops and restaurants lining the harbor. I became aware of Mr. Caruthers about this time because Dr. Don Kelso, GMU’s fish ecologist, and I had been interested for a number of years in obtaining a waterfront lab for research and teaching purposes. And I felt a special affinity for Mr. Caruthers since his life from a hardscrabble existence in the Oklahoma of the Dust Bowl days to a successful career paralleled that of my Dad who had a similar experience in Arkansas.
During the Harry Diamond Lab base closure process, we made a pitch for the lab at the tip of the Occoquan peninsula, but it was awarded to the Fish and Wildlife Service because Federal agencies had priority to pick up property from military base closures. However, the legislation that transferred the property to FWS had an interesting clause in it: “There should be an environmental science facility for research and teaching on the peninsula.” Thus, we felt encouraged to seek other nearby locations for the recommended facility.
We retained our interest in the area and our relationship with Preston, but building funds were not forthcoming. Then the Science Museum of Virginia (SMV) came into the picture and we were encouraged to partner with them in a new facility on the river which would have overlooked the water and been only a few hundred yards from where our building was eventually built. They came in big time with a large public science center proposal complete with a team of consultants to help develop exhibits. With money from the Caruthers family, SMV set up a foundation to help move the effort forward to which Mason contributed space for offices at the Sci Tech campus. As the plans evolved, an MOU was signed between Mason and SMV near the end of 2003. Mason was going to lease 35,000 sq.ft. including specially designed labs, offices and classrooms for aquatic ecology education and research. Things went well for a couple of years and then it was revealed that the SMV was broke and the museum project in Woodbridge was cancelled. We were of course extremely disappointed. But we were encouraged by many to keep trying. The university put together a team from Facilities Planning to spec out our own building, the beginning of Potomac Science Center. By 2008 faculty that would go to PEREC were holding retreats to map out the research and teaching plans at PSC.
While that seemed encouraging, where were we going to find $35 million? Preston wanted us to be at Belmont Bay, but he didn’t have $35 million to play with either. So we looked to the General Assembly of Virginia, who provides funding for university buildings. The university put PSC in their budget requests, but when push came to shove, there were always things more needy in the Mason administration’s mind. That’s where State Senator Charles Colgan who represented Prince William County came in. Senator Colgan was a senior member of the Senate Budget committee and legend has it that in the final hours of budget negotiations, a horse trade occurred. A senator in another part of the state wanted something and Senator Colgan said let’s give you what you want and that just about equals the PSC proposal of Mason so let’s make a swap and PSC was on its way to Preston Caruthers’ Belmont Bay.
Of course, there were many others who were crucial at getting this facility, but Mr. Caruthers was there at the beginning and stayed with us through the building opening. And this was all in a day’s work for him as he was involved in may educational initiatives during his public spirited life, including serving on Mason’s Board of Visitors and the Board of Education of the Commonwealth. He was also significant philanthropic supporter of many educational efforts including the Arlington County Public Schools Planetarium and Marymount University.
Preston Caruthers and his family joined Mason senior leadership and state legislators in Spring 2018 for the official opening celebration and dedication of the Potomac Science Center. He was 91 years old and his health was declining, but his renowned spirited demeanor was evident, and his pride in this accomplishment – more than 25 years in the making – was clear.
The Mr. Rodgers of Ecology is what a colleague suggested that Dr. Don Kelso be called due to his engaging, easy-going nature and passion for connecting students to aquatic ecosystems. We are thrilled that Dr. Kelso was honored at the naming ceremony during the Don Kelso Learning Pier kick off event. This pier will allow students and researchers direct access to the Occoquan river from Potomac Science Center, which Dr. Kelso, along with Dr. Chris Jones, worked tirelessly for two decades to start. Dr. Kelso was the first freshwater ecologist in the College of Science and this pier is just one way that his passion for science communication, outreach, and education can be achieved.
Learn more about Dr. Kelso at the following links:
https://issuu.com/masonspiritmagazine/docs/mason_spirit_fall_2021/s/14331586
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0t34tX1Dhw
and Learn more about the pier here: https://giving.gmu.edu/giving/science/don-kelso-pier-potomac-science-center/
