Water Quality: A Roadmap to Understanding

Academic Enrichment Grant   2009-2010 Project Summary

Linda Weber

Water Quality: A Roadmap to Understanding • Natick, Massachusetts

Students will “do” science, thinking, investigating and reporting by using scientific methodology, designing and conducting experiments, collecting and analyzing data and drawing conclusions. Students will contribute their results to a worldwide water monitoring effort with the goal of building public awareness and involvement to protect water resources. Students will research historical data and watershed maps, seeking explanations for their observations. Through this research and experimentation, the student-scientist will learn how the choices they make today influence the water they have tomorrow. Students will create posters and present their findings at a school-wide poster session, similar to those at scientific symposia, for students, staff and community members interested in the town’s water quality. Technology will be integrated into the project in a variety of ways including using Internet resources to conduct site research, digital media to photograph sites, and computers to analyze data. In a series of presentations and field trips, scientists and engineers, regulators and litigators, entrepreneurs and farmers working in the water quality field will share stories and experiences dealing with water quality issues to provide a beyond-the-classroom perspective to students.