Washington STEM Teachers Certified As Riverwatchers
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
All teachers at Washington STEM Academy will be certified riverwatchers for the state of Indiana, according to Principal Tom Ray.
The teachers are getting certified through Hoosier Riverwatch, a program through the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
Wednesday and today, the last batch of teachers trekked to Eagle Creek to conduct chemical, flow and biological studies on the river as part of the certification process. They collected information on Eagle Creek and input that into HoosierRiverwatch.com
“It helps the state collect information on waterways in Indiana,” Ray said. “It is a volunteer program. Because of the number of waterways in the state, Indiana needs lots of volunteers to run tests on different lakes and streams.”
By all Washington teachers being certified, they will become experts and take their students on field trips to lakes and streams, Ray said. They will have their students perform tests on the lakes and streams and collect the data at different sites in the county.
“It helps the students become good stewards of their community,” he said.
Students’ study of the waterways will meet the Common Core Standards in various ways. The collection of data will lead to them being able to interpret that information and make educational judgments and decisions. By reporting what they find, students will get a better understanding that they’re a part of the larger community as a whole, Ray said.
“This is one of those times they are able to share their time and talent with others, the community,” he said.
Some of the teachers took the training over the summer. For the teachers who took the fall training, there were two sessions and substitutes filled in for the teachers while they worked toward certification.
Third-grade teacher Lisa King took the training Wednesday and said she was really surprised that Eagle Creek was murky but they were able to find a lot of life in the water.
“We’re definitely going to take students over to Eagle Creek to examine the wildlife,” she said.
Some of the animal life that teachers found yesterday included mussels, crawfish, a variety of nymphs and larvae and even a zebra mussel.
“This summer, we did WET and WILD, we looked at Cherry Creek, but I think we found more here (at Eagle Creek),” King said.
Through her training, King said she became more knowledgeable about the waterways in Kosciusko County, and that’s what she wants for her students.
Kosciusko County Soil & Water Conservation District program administrator Darci Zolman provided the training to the Washington staff.
She said it was important because the county is blessed with an abundance of water and kids should be knowledgeable about the water in their backyard. At their age, they should be developing to become good stewards of their environment.
“Our water has impact beyond our county lines, but it starts here,” Zolman said.
Washington teachers have undergone training for three different curriculums provided by the state, she said. They include Project WET, Project WILD and Hoosier Riverwatch.
Project WILD is a supplementary environmental/conservation education program emphasizing wildlife, according to the state’s website. Project WET believes that informed people are more likely to participate in the decision making process and to make a difference through their actions.
Hoosier Riverwatch began in Indiana to increase public awareness of water quality issues and concerns by training volunteers to monitor stream water quality, according to its official website.
Zolman said all three programs are independent, but Washington was able to do a combination of WET & Wild.
“By the time we’re through, all the teachers here will be trained in all three of those,” she said.
The training Zolman provided to Washington was tailored specifically for the school’s STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) program.
“This is the first time I’ve had an entire school do it,” she said, “and I’ve been training for 20 years. That’s been a new wrinkle for me. That’s been kind of fun.”
Down at Eagle Creek, she had teachers sample for macroinvertebrates. “You can tell something of the water quality by what lives there,” she said.
Besides the macroinvertebrates assessment, teachers also did a physical assessment of the river bed and adjacent area, and a chemical test of the water.
“We’re blessed with an abundance of water, but that comes with responsibility,” Zolman said.
Luckily for Kosciusko County, she said, it does a good job of water monitoring with its river associations, Grace College’s Lakes and Streams program and the Soil and Water Conservation District.
