developing community -based environmental monitoring...
TRANSCRIPT
Developing Community-Based Environmental Monitoring Research as Curriculum to Protect
Drinking Water Sources
Teresa Ellen Thornton, M.S. Ph.D. AWRA Annual Conference
Denver, CO November 18, 2015
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Today’s Presentation • What is a CBMER
• Discuss how and why professionals choose to participate
• Describe the GET WET! program (research vehicle)
• Assist you in designing your own community-based research program
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Community-Based Environmental Monitoring Research
(CBEMR)
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Students, local professionals, and
community members work together to
educate the public towards solving
environmental concerns that affect our
natural resources
Place-Based, Authentic Learning
4
• School Centered
• Involves professionals and professors in the community
• Parents are encouraged to participate as expert volunteers
• Students are:
• Collaborators
• Field Researchers
• Scientists
• Reporters
• Participating members of their community
CBEMR
Example Research Vehicle GET WET!
Groundwater Education Through Water Evaluation and Testing
GOALS:
•Collect data on groundwater quality (students).
•Build interest in the community (schools). •Educate public to the need for private well testing
•Establish groundwater monitoring network. -Through random sampling of wells
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Private Well Water
• More than 15.9 million groundwater wells in the United States (NGWA.ORG)
• Approximately 500,000 new residential
wells are constructed annually (NGWA.ORG)
• Limited to no regulations or enforcement
for water quality testing
• Little incentive for homeowners to test wells
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Threats to Groundwater • Increasing development and demand
• Road salt, nitrates, historical contaminants, etc.
• Climate change
• Precipitation changes
• Saltwater intrusion in coastal communities
• Chemically concentrated, scarce groundwater (decreased recharge)
• Natural contaminants
http://www.besustainable.com/greenmajority/index.php?s=mments
http://spacing.ca/votes/?cat=42
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EDUCATIONAL GOALS:
Students:
-Field sampling techniques
-Laboratory skills
-Computer competence in Excel, Word, PowerPoint and a GIS program
-Internet research capabilities
-Mapping abilities
-Water chemistry
-An understanding why conservation and commitment to a healthy environment takes an entire community
GET WET!
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GET WET!
The Numbers:
• 11 years old
• 8 states
• 44 towns, 23 schools
• 100+ teachers and pre-service teachers
• 1000’s of 5th-12th students
• 100’s of Professional and Community Volunteers
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GET WET! • K-12 Students (and indirectly their household members)
• Teachers
• Administrators
• State Employees
• Watershed associations, conservation commissions, & ENGOs
• County or town employees
• Local business owners
• College professors & undergraduate students
• Parents, retirees, and other community members
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GET WET! Locations
MAINE Penobscot Watershed (3 towns) Androscoggin Watershed (3 towns) Frenchman Bay Watershed (4 towns) Nezinscot River Watershed ( 3 towns) Acton Watershed Androscoggin County Sagadahoc County NEW HAMPSHIRE Connecticut River Watershed (4 towns) Ossipee Watershed (6 towns) Wakefield Watershed VERMONT Connecticut River Watershed (2 towns) RHODE ISLAND Scituate Watershed (4 towns) CONNECTICUT Pawcatuck Watershed (3 towns) NEW YORK WallKill River Watershed (4 towns) Pine Bush Watershed Valley Central Watersheds
Enlarged City School District of Middletown Watersheds FLORIDA Port Jervis Watersheds Okeechobee Watershed (3 towns)
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GET WET!
Step 1: Full day training for educators & local citizen volunteers
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GET WET!
Step 2: Educate and train Students
http://www.usawaterquality.org/NewEngland/Focus_Areas/well/
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Students pre-visit presentation includes:
• Drinking water sources
• Hydrologic cycle
• Private well types
• How a well can become contaminated
• Potential contamination sources
• Testing parameters
• Student’s role in GET WET!
• How to sample well water
GET WET!
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GET WET!
Step 3a: Field sampling and testing
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Parameters students test for:
• Chloride
• Nitrates
• Total Iron or Total Metals
• Hardness (CaCO3)
• Conductivity
• pH
GET WET!
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GET WET!
Step 3b: Data analysis and mapping
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GET WET! Step 4: Students analyze results and create PowerPoint presentation
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Parameters of PowerPoint:
• Land-use issues
• Local geology
• Groundwater inputs
• Specific local water concerns
• Results in graph form and mapped in a GIS program
• Parameters we did NOT test
GET WET!
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GET WET!
Step 5: Presentation at public meeting Date, time, and location determined by teacher
http://livingindryden.org/2005/03/
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• Increased awareness of drinking water concerns
• CBEMR GET WET! networks continue to grow:
NH, RI, CT, ME, NY, FL
• Salt storage moved and covered: NH, NY, RI
• Septic system upgrades: RI (grant), ME, NY, NH, FL
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GROUNDWATER PROTECTION M
easu
reab
le A
ctio
ns I
• Awareness of historic contaminants : VT, RI, ME,
NH, FL
• Seasonal flooding effects: CT
• New well testing laws: RI
• Awareness of filtration systems: FL
– Student presentations, publications
• NIWR promotes this method as most effective
public education model
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GROUNDWATER PROTECTION M
easu
reab
le A
ctio
ns II
• Gain the attention of local officials
• Effective means to introduce students to local government
• Encourages social responsibility and a sense of place
• A more effective way of connecting student education to real world scenarios, theoretical science to practical science
• Connects the students to the community and gives them an opportunity to have a deeper understanding of science and community concerns
• Students will better comprehend what is needed to be stewards of and in their communities
• Careers in the fields of science, politics, engineering, and environmental protection.
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Resu
lts:
Expe
cted
Ben
efits
Common Core-Next Gen-STEM • English Language Arts Standards » Sci. & Technical Subjects
-Grade 9-10 -Grades 11-12
-Common Core Science Standards
• Science and Engineering Practices in the NGSS:
-Research Process
• Science, Technology, Society and the Environment
-Environmental Standards / Community Related
• Crosscutting Concepts: Crosscutting Concepts That Bridge Disciplinary Boundaries
• Stem Program of Study 25
GET WET! Website
• Activities and curriculum
• Forms and PowerPoints
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getweth2oed.org
HOW DO I START? DETERMINE A PROBLEM IN YOUR AREA
There are LOTS of organizations in our (and your) area!
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• Grassy Waters Preserve
• ARMLNWR
• Hobe Sound Wildlife Refuge
• MacArthur Beach State Park
• Busch Wildlife Sanctuary
• Jonathan Dickenson State Park
• ORCA Most organizations have an education component to
their grants and funding
HOW DO I OBTAIN PROFESSIONAL VOLUNTEERS?
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• Stakeholders
• Parents
• Local Organizations
• Local Colleges
• Professors
• Graduate Students
• Friends of volunteers!
• Perceived benefits to others
• Career expertise
• Social factors
• Environmental health factors
• Educational factors
• Working with “the future”
• Advance Science
• Improve Local Concerns
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Find
ings
: M
otiv
atio
ns
Thor
nton
, 201
5
WHY DO THEY VOLUNTEER?
Find
ings
: Re
tent
ion
• Flexible time
• Social factors
• Volunteers like the process,
goals, and benefits of the program
• Program has clear objectives, specific roles and
goals, and an opportunity to see outcomes in a
reasonable time
MORE DETAIL FOR ACTION IN ACTIVITY 30
FEED THEM!! Th
ornt
on, 2
015
HOW DO I KEEP THEM?
Cooperative Learning Students as volunteers/vicarious learning
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Page One of Worksheet
The Theory
Many professionals have listed the desire to share their expertise as a reason to volunteer
with other organizations.
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1. Make sure you are asking volunteers to perform specifically what they do for a living (i.e., a GIS expert can help students create maps).
2. Ask volunteers to invite others that they feel may be interested in participating.
3. Make sure that your demands on a volunteer’s time are flexible, specific, and clear from the onset (i.e., an hour of time doing X before a specific date)
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Practice I
4. Invite your volunteers to be a part of the process. Ask them how the goals of their organization, or how their personal goals can be met through their participation. What would they think is a valuable input to the program?
5. In order to complete #3 and #4 make sure your program has clear objectives, specific roles and goals for the volunteers, and an opportunity for the participants to see outcomes in a reasonable time.
6. Also, make it clear how their participation in the program, or the program itself is beneficial to the community, the environment, and to education.
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Practice II
Plan Part I
1. What is an environmental concern in your neighborhood or county?
2. Determine which organizations in your area would be stakeholders for that concern?
3. Decide how you will market this to schools, or your principal/department chair? How does it benefit that organization?
4. Do you want to develop curriculum that goes along with this program?
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Plan Part II
5. Do you want to make that curriculum public?
6. Will you include your stakeholders in curriculum development?
7. What role would you like your volunteers to assume?
8. How will you secure funding for supplies?
9. Can you facilitate this as long-term research or do you need to acquire facilitators?
10.What is the time frame from beginning to end? 36
Stud
ent P
artic
ipat
ion/
Mot
ivat
ion
Altruistic “… the ability to contribute to other communities and help out other schools “
-12th Grade
Sense of Value/”Real Science” “Interested in experiment and being a part of something that means something in the science world “
-11th Grade
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Stud
ent R
eten
tion
Enjoyment “Because I loved it the first year!”
-12th Grade
Social “Really liked it. Everything seemed to be beneficial for me. I got to experience a different group of people, different way of learning, I got to teach them and it was fun for me. “
-11th Grade
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Learn Something New “…It’s gathering data…you can see how the problem has progressed over the years [and you can] see if maybe they did something about it or if they are still unaware of what is going on.”
-11th Grade
Leadership Roles “It was fun teaching other kids how to test their water…[to] get the end result of what contaminated [their] water and [to find] where the mass contamination may be”
-11th Grade
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Stu
dent
Ret
entio
n/M
otiv
atio
n
Effe
cts o
f Par
ticip
atio
n:
Addi
tiona
l Wat
er R
elat
ed C
ours
ewor
k “Well, in college hopefully I can take more [water] courses” -12th Grade
“The research I am doing is water but it is also economics and I love that they go they go hand in hand. When I grow up, I want to major in economics, but if I see an opportunity to do economics and something water related I would totally do it”
11th Grade
“Yeah, I can see myself helping out more and possibly bringing the GET WET program to other places such as college and learning more on groundwater”
-12th Grade 41
Effe
cts o
f Par
ticip
atio
n:
Prof
essio
nal G
roun
dwat
er N
etw
orks
“Yes. For the second year when we did the PowerPoint I got to talk to management facilitators and I got to talk with them one on one. Feels pretty cool to have started a professional social network. If I have anything related to water , if I do any projects or if I need to know something…”
-11th Grade
“I think, in the sense of my social network, [I feel] I am more knowledgeable and I think I can have a conversation [with professionals] now”
-12th Grade 42
Effe
cts o
f Par
ticip
atio
n:
Col
labo
ratio
n Be
twee
n Sc
hool
s “I think at first when we said we have this project for you they weren’t willing to work, but then they realized it was their water they realized these are contaminants that are in MY WATER then they started to care and they were very wiling to cooperate and look at the results /statistics and say, “ WOW this is in my water, this is my health “
-11th Grade
43
“It is better that we are not adults because we can relate to the students more and we are more likely to know what mistakes are likely to occur in whatever experiment you are teaching. They asked me questions and I was able to answer.”
-11th Grade
“Collaborative effort and the people work well together. It is like two different communities coming together. I felt like we were teaching them something as well as them teaching us because we were able to test their groundwater and learn about their stuff”
-12th Grade 44
Effe
cts o
f Par
ticip
atio
n:
Colla
bora
tion
Betw
een
Scho
ols
Effe
cts o
f Par
ticip
atio
n:
Wat
er K
now
ledg
e Ga
ined
“To filter my water!! You can ingest a lot of toxins you don’t know about! “
-11th Grade
“I have learned A LOT I that has made me aware of the water I drink and shower in and cook with!”
-12 Grade
“It has influenced me on many levels because now I am testing my own water and everything in it and it has prompted me to educate others”
-12 Grade
“Yes. I will go somewhere and will kind of want to test [the water]” •-12 Grade
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“…when I am drinking something that taste funny [I think] maybe it is this maybe it is that. I know more about systems now. I had no idea septic systems affected your water . I had no idea what a septic system was. I didn't know if we had public water. I did not know that we had to filter it. I didn't know water bottles were bad. I didn't know any of that.”
-11th Grade
“Oh yes! I am much more careful where I shower and what I shower in , what I would swim in , everything! What I would drink. “
-12th Grade 46
Effe
cts o
f Par
ticip
atio
n:
Wat
er K
now
ledg
e Ga
ined
How Can Communities Improve How they Address Their Groundwater Issues?
“Get involved, actually test their systems, test their
water, and take the initiative to do something
about it. Don’t just leave it”
“Educate the population
better on the issues”
“I think we are helping that issue and they
could notice where … they need to be careful
[of land use]”
“I don't think they know that
they have issues”
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11th and 12th Grade Students
Effe
cts o
f Par
ticip
atio
n
48
Additional Course Work Post Participation
47%
8/17
Began Independent Water Research (5 Females/3 Male)
65%
11/17
Signed up for Additional Water Courses
78%
7/9
Females that signed up for additional water related courses
62%
5/8
Males that signed up for additional water related courses
Sum
mar
y St
uden
t Mot
ivat
ions
• ALL students personalized the lesson via health concerns
• Began to see that water issues are social, economic, and
political, as well as environmental
• Being connected to “real” science • Leadership roles: having and sharing knowledge
• Social Aspects: – Social networking or as students say “making new friends” – Inviting friends to participate, sharing the experience – Felt that the social nature of the CBMER made learning
enjoyable
• FUN!
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