Yavneh Academy’s third grade students visited the Meadowlands Environment Center (MEC) and enjoyed the opportunity to be marsh explorers, utilizing large nets on poles to pull all kinds of organisms out of the marshlands—such as larvae, small fish and grass shrimp—later to be more carefully examined in the MEC classrooms. As they walked along the pathway, students saw a variety of birds such as egrets, mallard ducks and tree swallows. The students learned that the grass along the Meadowlands is called phragmites. The children were amazed to see the New Jersey Turnpike from the vantage point of the MEC. Several students remarked in wonder that they have all travelled down this highway many times, never realizing all of the life and nature that is hidden alongside.