Camper, LIT, Intern, Counselor: Mars Carstens
Mars Carstens, a senior in the Wheeler Magnet program at Wheeler High School, had the wonderful opportunity to complete their senior year internship at the Chattahoochee Nature Center. They spent the Spring semester as an intern under Christie Hill, Naturalist Manager, learning about what a career as a Naturalist entails and becoming familiar with the materials and programs the Nature Center offers. During their internship, Mars’ main project was updating the amphibian monitoring program by replacing aged monitoring stations. They used the updated stations to research different amphibian monitoring methods to study monitoring efficiency.
Mars visited the Chattahoochee Nature Center for the first time in 2013 on a day trip with their family to visit the Butterfly Festival. They have fond memories of the visit and especially remember getting to experience all of the wildlife on the aviary walk. They visited the Chattahoochee Nature Center a few more times over the next few years with family or on school field trips.
Mars began attending Camp Kingfisher in 2015 and absolutely loved the program. They continued attending each summer as a camper until 2021, when they began participating in the high school Leadership In Training (LIT) program. In this program, they learned how to work well in a team and Mars links this program to their strong leadership and professional skills. This summer, they will be working as a counselor with Camp Kingfisher, thus achieving a ‘Legacy Camper’ status in camp!
This Fall, Mars will begin their freshman year of college at Mercer University as a member of the Stamps Scholars Program. They are a Southern Studies Major and plan to pursue a minor in Environmental Studies. Mars is incredibly excited to begin school now that they’ve spent time exploring the industry they want to pursue.
As a Junior at Innovation Academy Charter School in Alpharetta, GA, I was given the exciting opportunity to work on a semester-long, self-directed research project. The idea was to combine my passions—art and nature—and explore how one could influence the other. My research question? “Can public art influence engagement with the environment?” I wanted to create something that would live close to home, nestled within the natural world I love, where it could inspire others. As I realized this project could easily turn into something much bigger than my calcium rich human teeth could chew off, I also wanted to involve my family and local business community as volunteers. CNC was my first choice as their mission is to “connect people with nature”. Not only did they welcome my proposal, but they also connected me with Thomas Turner, the brilliant artist behind CNC’s iconic staircase mural, to mentor me.
My goal was to design something vibrant and joyful—art that would capture attention, spark curiosity, and inspire questions. Questions like, “Why are there two beavers in the mural when the habitat only has one beaver?” “Is the background water or sky?” “Is that a magnolia?” And my personal favorite: “Why are the beavers’ teeth orange?”
The first instrument he developed, and his personal favorite, was the ‘Log Drums’ which consists of 6 PVC pipes attached to a wooden base. He fine-tuned each pipe to a specific frequency by trimming the pipes to the calculated length in order to create an arrangement of notes called the pentatonic scale. He chose this scale because it generally sounds pleasant no matter the notes played, meaning that prior musical knowledge is not necessary to play these instruments. He used the same scale and led a similar procedure to construct the ‘Chimes’ which are made of copper pipes. Both of these instruments come with attached mallets that can easily be used to play the instruments.
The other instruments in this series resemble animals, specifically the frogs and woodpeckers. The ‘Frog Guiros’ rest on a lily pad stand with attached mallets that you can drag across the grooved surface of the hollow frogs to create a croaking noise. The woodpeckers rest on a wood post, where you can pull the attached wire up and down for the woodpeckers to strike the wood.
Fortunately, Anthony was able to primarily use recycled materials for this project. Anthony commented that, “It is amazing to see how sketches on paper and old lumber from our home renovation project have transformed into tangible musical instruments at CNC.” If you would like to try the instruments out yourself, come visit Chattahoochee Nature Center and head down to the Free Play Area!
On Sunday, March 9, CNC Members rolled up their sleeves and pulled on their boots to discover what’s thriving at the bottom of Kingfisher Pond. After a brief introduction, members utilized some of the same tools used by field biologists to scoop the detritus (decomposing plant matter) from the bottom of the pond and look for aquatic macroinvertebrates.
After the experience, each member family took home a mini pond study kit to encourage them to continue exploring water quality in their community.
