Can my students here in their small school district make the Chesapeake Bay healthier? My students need to know how the water quality here in Western Pennsylvania effects the bay that is hundreds of miles away.
My students are all seventh graders at a rural public school.
My students come from 10 different little towns in Western Pennsylvania, all containing or connected to the headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay. Some of these towns are old coal mining towns and farming towns. My students have a rich heritage in these professions.
My students sometimes have a hard time realizing that they are not the center of the universe and that there is much more beyond our district. My students need to see that what we do here with our water supply can effect many other species.
My Project
Hands-on science has been proved to be very effective. Taking the classroom to my students' hometowns and in some cases their backyards would truly be effective. I can not do this without having the WATER QUALITY TEST KIT BACKPACK.
All of the small towns and villages have water running through them that will eventually run into the Chesapeake Bay. All of these towns are now under federal mandate to clean up the water before it flows to the bay. Some of these headwaters have been effected by acid mine drainage while others have been effected by farm or industrial runoff.
I want to have my students test the water quality on the spot, in their hometowns like a real ecologist would test. I want them to use a GPS device to document exactly where the samples were tested. I want them to see the connection between what we do in our tiny district and the larger impact on the Eastern Coast. The impact would be greater than collecting a sample and bringing into the classroom to test.
The culminating project would be to compile their data from their towns onto a placemat that would be distributed to eateries in our school district.
The students would be able to share their information in a meaningful way. My students would test the water quality in their own hometowns and become aware of the impact they can have on a much larger body of water. Hopefully, I would be instilling a sense of stewardship into the students that would carry them into their adulthood.
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