Phase 2: Next Steps After Water Monitoring

Next Steps After Water Monitoring

*You are in step one of the six step process. Your data has been collected. If data has been collected during several class periods at the same location, consider taking the average of the results. If any of the results are significantly different from the other collected results, consider excluding those results and explaining to the class the reason for this. If possible, have the students run their tests agin.

*Check out page 26 in your Virginia Waterways curriculum for a listing of acceptable test range findings for your tests.

*Be sure to include your observations! Your project may focus on findings that do not come from the water monitoring! Observations can include the types of vegetation present (native vs. exotic), erosion, litter, how visitors utilize the area you are monitoring and evidence of wildlife.

*Students should make the request for an expert to come. Have them brainstorm which agencies or organizations should be approached for experts. Use Earth Force Tip Cards #6, #13, #14 and #18 to assist them with this process. Contact Jen for suggestions of specific individuals to contact.

*Be sure to confirm with an expert if you will be claiming that there is a water quality impairment. Your findings should be consistent with the other data that is collected in the area. Remember the "Winding Stream" activity from our fall training - you do not want to make false accusations!

*Arlington and Fairfax Teachers: Be sure to use your watershed maps from the County to note the upstream areas your water has passed through prior to arriving at your testing location.

*Did not find any water quality problems? Make a list of threats to the area. What is being done correctly that could be used in an education project with the community? What are some of the questions your students raised while monitoring? Could these questions be further developed into a project? Do some of the school's practices influence the water you tested?

*Pull out your posters. On a large sheet of paper, make a list of the impaired parameters in one column. Remember: the parameters are nitrogen, dissolved oxygen, phosphorus, pH, etc.

*Next to the parameters, make a list of the associated, human causes. A cause may be fertilizer runoff, animal waste, erosion, etc. Use common sense. For instance, if the data was collected in an urban area, do not include livestock waste as a possible cause for the impaired parameter.

*Step one outcome: Students create a list of verified impairments.

You have completed step one.

*Criteria needs to be developed and defined prior to the selection of a parameter/associated human cause. Go to page 34 of the Protecting Our Watersheds curriculum for the "Snack Attack" activity to outline a practice activity for the criteria selection process.

*Create a list of criteria that will help the class choose. What will be taken into consideration when choosing which policy or practice to focus on? Examples of criteria – affordability, time constraints, student interest in subject, feasibility – your students will define the exact meaning of these words. Develop criteria for issue selecton PRIOR to the voting!

*The activities on pages 37 and 39 in the Protecting Our Watersheds curriculum will assist you with the classroom voting!

*It is important that through each step in the process, the entire classroom feels invested and a part of the process, which is accomplished, in part, through the classroom voting.

*Step two outcome: Students focus on one water quality impairment and its associated causes.

You have completed step two.

Before you move forward, revisit the Protecting Our Watersheds - Teacher Guide. Pages 8 - 15 simplify the six steps into bullets and will help you stay on track.