Spring 2002 Discussion Area
| Hello we are B2, a Year 5 class at Murray Bridge Nortth
Schools. We live in Australia and our state is South Australia. Prior
to European settlement the Ngarrindjeri Aborigines inhabited the area. The
river provided abundant food and they lived well off a diet of kangaroos,
emus, wombats, goannas, lizards, ducks, turtles, fish, snakes and bird eggs.
Located 78 km from Adelaide, Murray Bridge is the major centre on the Murray River north of Lake Alexandrina. It is a large town of 17,000 people and is 26 metres above sea level. It is a typical sprawling rural centre with a grain silo on the skyline and vegetable gardens, hothouses and light industry surrounding the town centre. The Murray River is indeed a popular tourist attraction with in South Australia, but amongst its many well-recognised towns, one stands out above the rest. Murray Bridge is the "crown" of the Murray Region, containing many attractions for people of all ages. The Rocky Gully Lagoons are near the meat works at Murray Bridge. My class have been monitoring this site for 2 years. The lagoons are man made and are about 2 years old. Water comes from Rocky Gully, rainfall, run off from roads and gutters etc. The main objects are ponds, islands and channels. There is an increase in the number of birds at the lagoons and trees are being planted around the lagoon to help beautify it. Reeds are growing around the edges of the lagoons. Down at the lagoons you find yabbies, reeds, birds and saltbush plants. Murray Bridge North Schools is about 500 metres from the River Murray, the longest river in Australia. On our school site we have around 700 students from Reception to Year 7. There is also a Special School for students with intellectual difficulties. The tests we do are salinity, ph, turbidity, phosphate, acidity and nitrogen. After, we send our results to Lower Murray Water Watch. A question we would like to look at is how many of the macroinvertebrates that we find in Australia are also found in the U S A and Canada. NORTH TERRACE MURRAY BRIDGE SOUTH AUSTRALIA 5253 We forgot to put our latitude and longitude in our letter of introduction, latitude 35'7 mins longitude 139'16 mins Sorry for forgetting this B2 |
Dear Murray Bridge North School, It's hard to believe that you have real live kangaroos and lizards by your school! The only kangaroos around here are in the zoo. Did you have fun doing Take a Dip: Water in Our Lives? We did but it was cold, and people were complaining! What is the climate in Australia? The climate here is cold winters mild summers. What is a wombat? Hope to here from you soon, The students from Room 1, Urban Community School |
Sir Wilfrid Laurier Elementary
| April 10, 2002 Dear fellow international project mates, We are a group of grade seven students from two different classes, division 1 and 2 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Vancouver is a large city in Canada with a population of approximately 2.5 million people. We are interested in Take a Dip: Water in Our Lives as Vancouver is surrounded by numerous sources of fresh water, (being surrounded by the coastal mountains) as well as being situated directly on the Pacific Ocean. From our classroom window, we can actually see the Fraser River one of the major rivers in Canada. Our school of approximately 350 students is quite multi-cultural with students from Canada, Asia and Europe. We are located in the southwest part of the city in a residential section part of Vancouver. Our global coordinates are: 49.25° North and 123.13° West. Seattle Washington is just a 2 hour drive from our city. Our first task was to select what we thought were three accessible fresh water sources. After discussion we decided to test two sources: the Fraser river and the Capilano river. We chose the Fraser because it is the greatest salmon spawning river in the world, running approximately 825 miles from it's source in the Rocky mountains to the Pacific Ocean. In fact much of the land that forms Vancouver is the river delta built up over centuries. The Capilano river is fed by one of the main water reservoirs of our city, situated in the North Shore mountains, a 45 minute bus ride from our school. Our hypotheses are: We think that the Fraser river will be much more polluted than the Capilano due to the industry and manufacturing that line its shores near our city. With most of the initial tasks completed, we are motivated to start testing the water sources that we have chosen. We hope that our research will be clear and concise and we are looking forward to reading your analyses as well. PS Our school website is http://laurier.vsb.bc.ca |
| Hello are names are Glenna Smith and Leah Recht. We are
working together on the "Take a Dip: Water in Our Lives" project for our hydrology class. The
name of our school is the George School, and we are located in Newtown, PA.
Our school is a Quaker school. We have a very peaceful community. We are
doing this project of our end of the year project, which must pertain to
water in some way. We picked "Take a Dip: Water in Our Lives" because it has everything to do
with water and it sounds fun and challenging. Our hypothesis is that the water in the creek is of good quality and that the macro-invertebrates help keep the water clean. Also by performing these tests we are expanding our knowledge of the quality of the creeks water and what are the factors that keep it that way. |
| The IISD summer environmental course is a unique
opportunity for the students to observe different ecosystems as the camp in
different sites during a two week study. This is a high school accredited
fourth year science class. We spend 160 class/travel hours with a total of
13 students. Our destination is Niagara Falls, NY with stops in Missouri,
Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas. The course has each student rotating jobs where they do a water and soil study, the weather, and the GPS location at each site. The students will also identify trees, wildflowers, a rock, mineral or fossil and a vertebrate at each site. The students are asked to compare/contrast the ecosystems with Irving, TX. The great opportunity with "Take a Dip: Water in Our Lives" was that were are able to see other students' data at different locations. It will only enhanced what we were already trying to do! |
| River Trails Middle School is located at 1000 Wolf Road in
Mount Prospect, Illinois. We are a part of River Trails School District 26.
District 26 is a K-8 District with 1800 students who reside in the villages
of Mount Prospect (80%), Prospect Heights (18%), and Des Plaines (2%). The
District is located in Cook County, Illinois twenty-five miles northwest of
the city of Chicago. Our latitude is 42N04 and our longitude is 87w56. The seventh grade students at River Trails participate in a biology-based Interdisciplinary Unit which addresses the problem of water quality in Illinois and allows for student learning through a field-based science experience that benefits the students’ sense of self and community. The activities expose the students to collaborative learning environments and real life applications as utilized by our departments of water quality control. Our web page for this project is www.rtsd26.org/trails/7th/stream/index.html. Hypothesis: Based on Fall rating tests, the spring water rating tests of McDonald’s Creek will fall within the same ranges of fair to good as determined by comparison and analysis of the biological, chemical, and physical data collected. Thank you "Take a Dip: Water in Our Lives" This enhances our Interdisciplinary Unit! |
| Dear Fellow Students and Friends, Our class is Rm1. We are both a 5th and a 6th grade class. We are from Urban Community School. Our address is 2401 Washington Ave, Cleveland, Ohio 44109. We attend a private school. Our latitude and longitude is 41'23'N and 81'41'W. Our school is located really close to Downtown Cleveland. We are also located near the Cuyahoga River. In 1969 the Cuyahoga River had so much pollution that it caught on fire. Right now though, it is getting better. In January we visited the Cuyahoga Valley Environmental Education Center. While there we learned how to conduct PH tests, turbidity tests, dissolved oxygen tests, etc. We were also taught how to use Global Positioning Systems.(GPS) We choose the Rocky River to do our research on. The Rocky River is located about 8 miles West of Cleveland. It is in one of our Metroparks. We predict that the Rocky river will be clean. Our class hopes to hear from you soon. Good luck on your research! Sincerely, The students of Rm1,and Ms.Reagan. |
| Hi everyone! I would like to introduce you to the work of the 7th grade students from Taipei American School in Taipei, Taiwan. ( 25 N by 121.5 E ). Our school is a K-12 English speaking school sponsored by the Department of State. There are about 600 students in our Middle School (grades 6-8), from all over the world. We spent the third quarter (January- March) researching what a watershed is and how it works. As part of this research, we tested three sites along a local stream on two different occasions. The first visit was to explore, take GPS readings, and record possible pollution sources. The second visit was to perform many water quality tests, to try to find and draw or photograph any macro invertebrates (we also took samples and looked for microscopic life as well), and to clean up the area (as we found two sites full of trash). Every 7th grade student participated in this Watershed Field Study, but only about 16-20 will be able to return to the sites to make the measurements for this project. We are quite concerned about the state of our stream, as Taiwan is currently experiencing a severe water shortage. Submitted by Karen Pearson our school website: www.tas.edu.tw |
| Hello! This is the first year for sixth graders to be a
part of a middle school in our town of South Kingstown, RI. We are the
smallest state in the US and may be the most densely populated. Our town is
near the University of RI which has a very strong engineering department.
The students on our team use Gems/Net Kits to learn a variety of scientific
concepts. In the fall we learned about ecosystems by building Ecocolumns out
of 2 liter soda bottles. One bottle was cut and inverted over another. The
top was a terrarium containing rye grass, alfalfa, mustard, isopods and
crickets. It was watered by the water cycle and its connection to the
aquarium at the bottom which had mosquito fish, elodea, algae and snails in
it. We learned a lot and then researched habitats of our own choosing and also learned about environmental problems caused by man in those ecosystems. We wrote story books, made videos and power points for younger children to learn about our habitat and how they can help the earth. We won a state award for this! It is called the Environmentalist of the Year award. As our final project of the year we are curious to learn more about a pond on our school grounds. We will gather data to use as a baseline for classes in the future to monitor the health of the pond. We are located at 42:26:14N, 71:30:07W. We are looking forward to learning more about people outside of RI. |
| Hi, our names are Samantha and Jasmine. We both attend
Mawson Lakes Middle School in South Australia. Currently our school is
located in the university of South Australia but the years 6-10 are in
transportables. The reason for this is that our new school is still being
built, but hopefully we will be in our new school by 2003. Our school is one of the newest schools in South Australia. We use lots of high tech. Facilities; because of this we have had some publicity, which include newspaper articles, news topics and a kids television show, Nick Takes Over Your School. The longitude and latitude of our school was difficult to find but we found it by using a GPS (Global Monitoring System): South: 34 48' 41.6 East: 138 36'59.4 Our first test we had to do in the same place as the other group in our class so our test results were the same, but our next tests will now be different because we will be doing them on a boat ramp near the Boat Deck Café. We are very excited to be apart of the 'Take a Dip: Water in Our Lives Project'!!! |
| Hi from Altamont School. I am Alex Taylor from Birmingham Alabama. In Birmingham I am at 33.521859 N, 86.766579 W. I am in 7th grade and the other people in this class are in 8th. Altamont is a school that goes from grades 5 to 12. We are the largest city in Alabama and this week is City stages where people come from around the world to play songs here in Birmingham Alabama. When looking at the water we thought it would be the grossest stuff ever but then we got it in the jars and it was not so gross so we thought that it would be bad water. |
| Greetings from Clifton T. Barkalow Middle School in
Freehold, New Jersey! We are a group of seventh and eighth grade students
who are in the Academic Enrichment Program, our gifted program, in science
or math. We are very interested in the world around us and the “Take a Dip: Water in Our Lives”
program caught our eyes. Freehold has numerous water resources such as
lakes, rivers, ponds, and creeks, and is located 40.25880 degrees North, and
74.27559 degrees West. Freehold is a suburban town that is very developed,
yet much of it is farmland, open land, and orchards. We have a population of
about 32,000 people. Our zip code is 07728. Our “Take a Dip: Water in Our Lives” project was to learn about watersheds and how they interact with the environment, creatures, and people around them. We chose Lake Topanemus, a local lake, and have formed a partnership with their commission to monitor the water quality. AmeriCorps Watershed Ambassadors trained us in BATS (Biological Assessment TeamS) and RATS (River Assessment TeamS) to do that job. Our local Rutgers University Extension Agent lent us chemical water testing equipment. The school will continue this program for many years to come, and we are drawing in other area schools to join us. We recently went on a class trip with fourth graders from another school to monitor the quality of the water in Lake Topanemus and to see what macro invertebrates we could find. We found that the water quality was fair to good through macro invertebrate census, but think that this is because we are new to this practice, and did not have an accurate count. The water did not show much pollution, although the lake is close to a road and picnic/park area. While observing the water we went on a macro invertebrate “hunt”. We dug into piles of sediment, soil, and other things that had been collected from the bottom of a creek flowing from the lake. There we found many macro invertebrates such as gilled snails, adult riffled beetles, damselfly nymphs, dragonfly nymphs, scuds, aquatic worms, pouch (and other) snails, and occasionally a clam or two. We collected them into ice cube trays and observed and counted them. As beginners we didn’t know what to expect, and did not make any hypotheses. After this experience, we have begun to develop our hypotheses and make predictions. It appears that the water is in good health and we expect to see it remain at least as good or better in quality when we go out to observe it every couple of months. We will be performing another macro invertebrate census and doing chemical testing in mid-June. As we walked around making observations, we made an amazing discovery. On a post by the boat launching area, we saw a dragonfly that had recently emerged from its shell and was still drying itself and gaining strength while holding on to its shell. As we watched, it became stronger. We left it to its task, and when we returned about an hour later, it was gone. We kept the empty skin to remind us of this special opportunity we had to see a miracle of nature, and to remember the adult dragonfly when we see its nymph stage in the stream mud. We will continue studies of Lake Topanemus as our major Service Learning project. We learned a lot about watersheds, macroinvertebrates, water pollution and how it affects the environment around it, and the area around the lake. It was an interesting and hands-on project. Throughout Lake Topanemus Park, there are informational kiosks that display a poster-sized newspaper article about our BATS training projects that have occurred, and student-created research brochures and posters for the public to take to read and learn. In June, students will return to Lake Topanemus Park to paint the life-
cycle of a dragonfly onto a building wall so all park visitors can be
informed about the amazing yet tiny world that lies around them at Lake
Topanemus and everywhere. We look forward to posting our data and
comparing with other geographical areas around the world in this exciting
internet project, and can't wait to join "Take a Dip: Water in Our Lives" again in autumn. |
| Period 1 Greetings! Recently, Stowe Middle School's 7th graders have been involved in the resurrection of our school pond. Stowe Middle School is located in Stowe, Vermont. The pond's longitude and latitude is 44 degrees North and 72 degrees West. We find it to be a great advantage in studying simple and complex living organisms in our own personal community. Before we started the clean-up of the pond, it had litter and un-beneficial bacteria. When our teacher, Mr. Grogan asked us what we thought the pond's condition was, most of us were torn. We had not been formally introduced to the pond, and we did not know the conditions of it's ecosystem. When we were brought out to the pond, we must say that most of us were quite appalled, for the health of the pond was not anything above average. It was now our goal to create a sanitary habitat for the organisms that lived there. But, with the help of the students and staff, our pond is now a breeding ground for healthy and beneficial organisms to live. We hope that other school's are lucky enough to have the learning experience of a backyard pond, because everyone in Stowe Middle School now knows how it feels to have an intriguing hands-on experience! Signed, The Students and Staff of Stowe Middle School Period 2 Our school, Stowe Middle School/ High school is located 44 Degrees N 72 Degrees W in Stowe, Vermont. Stowe is a very healthy and safe community. We are from Mr.Grogan's 2nd period class. Our class helps maintain the grounds around our school including the woods next to the pond. We hypothesize that our pond is only fairly healthy because the water is dark and murky, and there is a lot of algae on the surface. There is lots of muck. There was also garbage found in and around the pond, which we have cleaned up, of course. Last year the water level was very low; this year it is higher, so the pond appears healthier. The pond is full of frogs and crayfish, but we see no fish. As well as the data submitted on the table, we also found: 7 frogs 37 diving beetles 51 water boatmen 700 + tadpoles 3 marsh treaders 8 water scorpions 9 giant water bugs 3 wood nymphs 1 dragonfly nymph 100 frog eggs 2 eastern stoneflies ... for a total of 1187 organisms! We all think this project is cool, and we are amazed at all the freaky life found in our pond. Period 3 We are from Stowe Middle School's 3rd period, 7th grade Science class. We have discovered your web site and decided to take a chance and examine our pond. Our school is located at 44 0, 30'N, 72 0, 40'W, in Stowe Vermont. We made a nature trail behind our school that goes around our pond. Last year we spent time cleaning our pond, however there is still room for more improvement. We think our pond is fairly healthy but there is a problem with the amount of waste located in the pond, and its neglected. This study will help us begin on our search for Pond Life and give us a head start on keeping the pond healthy! Signed Stowe Middle School Hi- We are Stowe Middle School, period 3. We recently wrote a letter regarding our pond. We forgot to mention other organisms that lived in the pond that weren't listed. They are ... Predaceous diving beetle- 1 Green Frog- 5 Green frog tadpoles- 60 Sack of salamander eggs- 2 Waterfly- 3 Green Alae- Unknown, but a very good amount Waterbug- 6 Gomphosphaeria- 1 American- Toad tadpoles- 64 These are the organisms that were not listed on the data sheet. Signed 3rd period Stowe Middle School |
| Take a Dip: Water in Our Lives Project in Julio Caro Baroja We and our school Hello, we are students of third year of secondary. Our class is called 3º2, because there are four classes in the level 3º ESO (Compulsory Secondary Education). We are 25 students in our class, and this is our second year in Physics and Chemistry. Our teacher wants us to do a research work about the water of the river Gobela. Our school is called "IES Julio Caro Baroja" but it is known as "Getxo I" because it was the first High-School in Getxo (Spain). We are at 43º 21' 3'' N and 3º 13'' W. The building is big enough for the 700 students that are studying there, we have a big library, some laboratories, computer rooms, a canteen, ... The ground is fantastic; apart from the diferent grounds to play sports like soccer, basketball, volley ball, .... there is a green area of more than 4 000 m2. The school garden is full of plants, flowers and trees from diferent parts of the world and we usually go to study them in the Science class. The Gobela river passes along a border of the school ground. The river is not very long, but it is very important for the people in Getxo, because it crosses the whole village. Our village is situated on the northern coast of Spain, 12 km from Bilbao, our capital city. Getxo is a very beautiful village, with a population of about 85000 people, several beaches, a marina, several parks, and very nice houses. You can get more information about Getxo, visiting our site, http://www.getxo.net/ |
| This project is developed and managed by the Center for Improved Engineering and Science Education (CIESE) |