Dr. Rachel Teasdale and Dr. Julie Monet hosted our group for a stream study activity of Big Chico Creek which runs directly through the campus of California State University, Chico. The program highlighted features found in all streams including point bars, cut banks and riffles.

Dr. Teasdale led the students in an activity which measured the rate of stream flow, illustrating how the outside of a stream bend flows at a greater rate than inside. The increased velocity of the water equates to an increase in the stream's kinetic energy, allowing it to form a cut bank as it erodes the smaller clasts in its path. The inside of the bend, however, with its slower rate and, thus, lower energy, ultimately deposits these smaller clasts on a point bar.

Students in the classroom watched as their classmates waded into the stream to collect clasts from both the cut bank and point bar size of the stream. Dr. Teasdale demonstrated for students back in the classroom how they should measure the size of the clasts in the follow-up activity scheduled the next day.