City Kids Explore Bay Life

"The kids get excited just seeing the horses on the drive out here," Towles said.

Here's what they had to say:

"I think it's great," said Tysean, who was making his first trip to the bay region. "I didn't know about crabs, or that the female has a different shape on its stomach than the male."

Elijah, also 10, dropped bait from a string at the dock, trying to catch a crab.

"I wanted to see the crabs and the shrimp, but touching the creatures feels funny," he said. He stopped talking when he felt a tug on the string.

"I feel something heavy," he told Jagusch. "How do you know if the crab is going to get it?"

"You don't," she replied. "Crabbing is a hard job."

"I'm doing things I've never done before," said Jamia, 9, dunking a waterproof thermometer into the river to test the temperature. "I learned how you look at oyster shells."

At a nearby beach, students donned protective gear and waded into the water with nets to see if they could find more critters. Some children who had seen a water snake's head protruding from the surface were concerned.

"Would a water snake hurt us?" one child asked. No, she was reassured, it would swim away from all the commotion.

The nets scooped up more crabs, shrimp and a brightly colored pumpkinseed fish. They were placed in a tub of river water and later released after the children had a chance to look at and touch them.

"It feels nice when you first touch it, but it feels like it can cut you," said Elijah, holding the small pumpkinseed fish. "It feels a little bit cold."

Tyisha Christian, 10, said the trip was exciting. "It made my day to come here," she said. But some of the critters, she confessed, "give me the creeps. Some stuff I saw, I just didn't touch it."

Steve Gauss, a volunteer who helps with student groups at the Smithsonian facility, said elementary school students are "wonderful" to work with.

"They're curious, interested, not disruptive," he said. "They have a good time out here. It's a very popular program. Some school group is out here every day."

Mika Zanders, 10, said she had been fishing once but had never had a chance to go crabbing or to seine -- dragging the river with a net to capture critters.

"I liked everything," she enthused. "We couldn't wait for this trip."

DC BayWatch is offered every spring. The $77,500 cost of this year's program is being underwritten by Project AWARE, Ronald McDonald House Charities and the Wallace Genetic Foundation, said Jessica R. Fraser, Discovery Creek spokeswoman. Discovery Creek hopes to expand the program to more schools in the future.