By Julie M. Graham, The Chronicle, 3/24/2001
Megan Hess carefully measured out a milliliter of phosphate acid reagent and added it to 10 milliliters of water taken from Scammon Creek near Cooks Hill Road in Centralia on Thursday.
Then, following schoolmate Theresa Schultz's instructions, she added a minute amount of phosphate-reducing reagent to the solution.
"It looks grayer, and the other ones look bluer," Theresa said, contrasting the resulting liquid in the test tube to examples of phosphate concentration.
The two girls, a freshman and a sophomore respectively at Centralia High School, repeated the process twice more, determining with each test that the creek had less than 2 milligrams of phosphate per liter of water; the low level is a healthy sign.
The higher the amount of nitrates and phosphates in the water, the more algae will grow, explained science teacher John Schultz.
The algae then produce oxygen through photosynthesis during the day, but consume the element at night, causing overall depletion of oxygen levels, he added.
Meanwhile, junior Craig Taylor, a chemistry student, crouched in the cold stream, using a small handheld computer to test the running water for oxygen saturation, dissolved oxygen, temperature and pH balance.
The three-person team was one of several groups from local high schools testing water quality within the Chehalis River Basin this week.
The information gathered will be posted on the Internet and submitted to the Chehalis River Council's newsletter, "Drops of Water," but the goal behind the project, known as the Chehalis Basin Education Consortium, is to provide students with real-life science experience that helps them improve their math and science skills.
"This is fun," Megan said, mentioning she'd like to do more science activities outside the classroom.
"The objectives (of CBEC) really are to provide relevant, hands-on learning that relates to Washington state learning standards using a community resource, in this case, the river," said Tom Hulst, assistant superintendent at Educational Service District 113, which supports 45 school districts.
CBEC is financed by a two-year federal grant called Goals 2000, which pays for teacher training, equipment approved by state agencies, substitute teachers and transportation to test sites, Hulst said.
Slightly more than 20 of the districts the ESD serves are within the basin, and of those, 14 -- including Adna, Boistfort, Centralia, Napavine, Onalaska, Pe Ell, Rochester and Tenino -- are actively involved in water monitoring.
"One of the things that really attracted many of our teachers was the opportunity for water quality testing and that evolved into water monitoring week (March 19 to 23)," Hulst said.
"It (the Chehalis Basin) starts out by Onalaska and goes out to our area and then all the way to Ocosta (School District in Westport)," said Debbi Davis, a science teacher at Adna Middle-High School.
In addition to the real-life monitoring, students learn about the importance of water quality and may start to develop a stewardship mentality, Davis said.
Her ninth-grade environmental science class teamed with Cheryl Gibson's fourth- and fifth-graders to test the Skookumchuck River at Schaefer County Park near Centralia Friday morning. The intent is for the older students to work one-on-one with the grade school children, she said.
Along with gaining understanding of how water quality works, students are also providing information that can be used outside of school, Schultz said.
The departments of Ecology, and Fisheries and Wildlife, don't have the capability to handle all of the water quality testing to be done in the state and are looking for volunteers, Schultz said. Ideally, he added, interested teen-agers could monitor waterways near their homes as individual science projects.
"I think it's our hope that eventually the data collected will be used by different agencies and will have scientific legitimacy," Hulst said.
The project is in its second year, and the information will become more useful as results are compiled over several years, establishing a basis for comparison.
The water monitoring also provides a link among community organizations and schools. Supporters of CBEC include Weyerhaeuser, the Department of Natural Resources, the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, the Department of Ecology, the Soil Conservation District, the Chehalis River Council, and community colleges within the basin.
In the long term, he would like to see teachers share the lesson plans they develop from the environmental monitoring, and determine how effective they are at improving student learning, which is the bottom line, Hulst said.
If the enthusiasm of several Adna students working their way through the tests is any indication, real-life experiments are a valuable tool in accomplishing that.
"I like it 'cause you can learn a lot more by experiencing stuff than by just hearing it from a teacher," ninth-grader Katy Borden said, adding that she prefers hands-on science.
Brittney Dorsch, a fifth-grader, said she likes doing instead of just hearing.
Science in the classroom can be dull, fellow fifth-graders Courtney Mohoric and Andy Hannum said, agreeing that they found hands-on activities more fun and interesting.
"When we just do (science) on paper and stuff, it's usually boring, but when we do it with other stuff, then it's fun," fourth-grader Cory Olson said, offering the water testing and dissecting a cow brain as examples.
"I think it's way better because you get to experience things instead of just hearing about them," said Josh Floyd, a ninth-grader. He also likes getting out in the fresh air.
In addition to the tests listed above, students examined nitrate content and biological oxygen demand, and collected samples for fecal coliform testing, which wastewater plants perform. Some groups also checked the turbidity, or how clear the water is, and counted and identified macro invertebrates.
The information should be online at http://www.cbr.washington.edu/naturemapping/ by the middle of next week, Schultz said.
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Julie M. Graham covers education for The Chronicle. She may be reached by e-mail at jgraham@chronline.com or by calling 807-8232.
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