The project began September 2010 and will continue through May 2011.\u00a0 Lake Watch volunteers, and now staff members from Alabama Water Watch (AWW), visit the school two days every month.\u00a0 Thursdays are for morning and afternoon groups of 5th-graders, and Fridays are for two similar 6th-grade groups.\u00a0 The high point of each session is a hike along a stream behind the school that goes to the Alexander City SportPlex and ultimately flows into Lake Martin.\u00a0 The students named the stream “Barrett Creek” after their teacher.<\/p>\n
The first program began with a general discussion of watersheds and the three AWW water testing procedures,\u00a0 Water Chemistry<\/strong> (LaMotte test kit), Bacteriological Monitoring<\/strong> (Coliscan Easygel method), and Stream Biomonitoring<\/strong> (or Living Streams<\/em>; go to www.alabamawaterwatch<\/a> for more information on test procedures and training opportunities).\u00a0 <\/p>\n Students collected water samples from Barrett Creek for chemical and bacterial testing.\u00a0 They obtained a water sample upstream where debris was frequently found and downstream near the waterwheel at the Alexander City Sportplex They also searched for macroinvertebrates and, based on their findings, determined that the stream is impaired. Upstream high levels of manganese were found (from tests done at the Auburn University Soils Lab) but downstream the levels were in the normal range.\u00a0 Students learned that nature can take care of itself by naturally filtering the water and assimilating pollutants.\u00a0 <\/p>\n During the fall season the students expanded their knowledge of AWW techniques.\u00a0 They learned about bacteria by testing water samples taken from school commodes and restroom surfaces.\u00a0 A homemade incubator was placed in the classroom for their use.\u00a0 Students placed water drawn from a dropper into a special Petri dish.\u00a0 Twenty four hours later, they could see a series of blue dots (colonies) indicating the presence of bacteria.\u00a0 Red dots indicated that E. coli<\/em> were present.\u00a0 And needless to say, they found E. coli<\/em> bacteria\u2026especially from commodes that had not been properly flushed.\u00a0 Students also learned how to calculate the number of bacteria colonies that were present in the water samples.\u00a0 <\/p>\n They learned about pH and other chemical parameters from Lake Watch board member Tom Lynch, a retired chemist who used spiked water samples to enhance the learning process.\u00a0 .\u00a0 Students were given color-coded charts going from pH equal to zero (battery acid, represented as red) to pH equal to14 (lye, represented as blue).\u00a0\u00a0 Students discovered that bleach, ammonia, and lemon juice had been added to water based on results of their pH tests of various spiked samples.\u00a0 <\/p>\n The January 2011 session had Sergio Ruiz and Mona Scruggs teaching more about watersheds using the EnviroScape terrain model and colored water samples to show how erosion and polluted stormwater runoff affect waterbodies.\u00a0 Students learned that our Tallapoosa Watershed begins in Georgia and eventually empties into the Gulf of Mexico.\u00a0 They also learned that watersheds come in lots of different sizes by comparing them to a series of different mixing bowls inside one another.\u00a0 This was a great visual that helped students understand how one watershed drains into a larger one, as streams and rivers make their way to the sea.\u00a0 <\/p>\n In February Bill Deutsch and Sergio took the students on a trip around the world using hats they had collected during their travels for Global Water Watch.\u00a0 Student “models” wore selected hats while others tried to guess which countries were represented.\u00a0 Students were able to see first-hand how people deal with water issues.\u00a0 In areas of extreme drought, villagers harvest the water from their roofs into tanks safely, as long as they keep their roofs clean.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Students then made a direct connection to the pond built this year at the school as a water harvesting system that is fed from a 300-gallon-tank rooftop catchment system.\u00a0 They could understand, on a small scale, what it is like to not have enough water from the tank to fully maintain their pond during drought conditions.\u00a0 They found it hard to believe that some people’s livelihoods depended on how much water they can collect.\u00a0 Then a discussion took place about water quality and quantity problems in each of these countries.\u00a0 The kids not only got a valuable perspective on water around the world but a wonderful geography lesson as well.<\/p>\n March will bring refresher sessions by Lake Watch volunteers on the three AWW testing protocols, to be followed in April by AWW Lab Chief Wendy Seesock talking about algae using a projection microscope.\u00a0The program will culminate in May when the students get the full Living Streams<\/em> experience at Elkahatchee Creek, a stream known for high water quality.\u00a0 Students will discover what types of macroinvertebrates are found in a stream with high water quality, compared to Barrett Creek, where virtually none were found. <\/p>\n So what began as a modest class request has turned into a full-blown environmental education project that couples a local AWW group and Auburn University staffers with a local school.\u00a0 It is estimated that by the May program, Lake Watch volunteers and AWW staff will have provided about 140 contact hours to the Radney School project.\u00a0 Fifty gifted students’ lives have been changed forever because of their dedication and generosity.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Which invites the question – how does one gauge the impact of such a program on young minds? Let’s ask the kids for their thoughts on the program thus far:<\/p>\n Program #1<\/u>: Sergio the Fantastic and Mona the Magnificent<\/p>\n Water Watch has taught us a lot of things like water all over the world and watersheds in Alabama.\u00a0 Mr. Sergio and Ms. Mona came and told us about the 11 main watersheds in Alabama. They also brought an Enviroscape and talked about direct and indirect pollution from buildings, cars, tractors and houses.\u00a0 When it rains, it carries all of the pollution into the lakes.\u00a0 The AWW team has taught everyone here a lot about the water and how we can take care of it.\u00a0 We love for them to come and I can’t wait until the next time they come! <\/p>\n Michael McGill<\/em>, 6th grade student <\/p>\n Program #2<\/u>: Learning About the World with Hats<\/p>\n Our time with the AWW has been great!\u00a0 My favorite time was when Mr. Sergio & Dr. Deutsch came and presented a power point about where they had gone and done water testing.\u00a0 Some of the places were:\u00a0 the Philippines, Peru, Brazil and Alabama.\u00a0 Dr. Deutsch and Mr. Sergio brought hats from around the world.\u00a0 I got to wear a hat from Ecuador.\u00a0 You can always remember Ecuador is by the equator because they sound alike.\u00a0 It was very fun!\u00a0<\/p>\n Savannah<\/em> Bush, <\/em>6th grade student<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This anecdote may also help provide an answer. One of the students, a girl in 5th grade, had an exciting announcement for Mary Ann. She said that she hoped to get a LaMotte water test kit for Christmas! <\/p>\n As for the future, Lake Watch has committed to another school year of environmental education for the Radney 5th & 6th grade gifted students for 2011-12.\u00a0 A modest grant will again be provided by Lake Watch to cover travel expenses for AWW staff members. And who knows where this might go – possible creation of a new AWW endeavor such as ‘Junior Water Watchers’?\u00a0 Stay tuned. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What began as a one-time environmental program for a local school has blossomed into a multi-year project. In early 2010, Laurie Barrett, who teaches gifted 5th & 6th grade students […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aaes.auburn.edu\/wrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aaes.auburn.edu\/wrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aaes.auburn.edu\/wrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aaes.auburn.edu\/wrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aaes.auburn.edu\/wrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/aaes.auburn.edu\/wrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7750,"href":"https:\/\/aaes.auburn.edu\/wrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions\/7750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aaes.auburn.edu\/wrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aaes.auburn.edu\/wrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aaes.auburn.edu\/wrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/captest.aces.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/p1-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\nClick here for more pictures of the Enviroscape program <\/a><\/h4>\n
![](\"https:\/\/captest.aces.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/p2-06.jpg\")
<\/p>\nClick here for more pictures of the ‘World Hats’ program <\/a><\/h4>\n