Student Pages |
Index |
Description: The students will do a series of water tests determining the quality of the river water, compile the results, analyze the data, and submit the results to a web page.
Subject:Environmental Science
Grade Level: Grades 10 through 12
Learner Description:
The Environmental Science Class at JD Darnall High School is conducting a series of tests on the Green River water to evaluate the health of the river. Phil Paulson ( environmental science teacher) has one class of Environmental Science class consisting of 24 students. The class meets every day for 50 minutes.
The Environmental science class has access to a computer lab with 10 Macintosh powerbook computers and has access to two internet locations (in the library and in the lab).
At the beginning of the period of the first day, the students of Mr. Paulson's (who are in grades 10-12) Environmental Science class at JD Darnall High School in Geneseo, Illinois, will enter the science room and sit in their assigned seats. The students will then be given background behind the health of the Green River and presented with two contradictory newspaper articles dealing with the pollution of the Green river.
A Green River Mystery: The Resident River Locals
are Dying and Are
Found Floating Belly Up!!!!
The Water Pollution is all a hoax!!!! The Green
River is OK!!!!
The class breaks into small heterogeneous groups and are challenged to explore the possible valid arguments the articles deal with regarding the pollution of the river. As the teams go about their work, Mr. Paulson will move between each group around the room. He will provide feedback and guidance and keeps track of progress.
At the last 15 minutes of the class period, Mr. Paulson will get the attention of the class and write down their ideas on the chalkboard about their conclusions about the articles. With 5 remaining minutes, Mr. Paulson will challenge each student to come up with 5 main ideas on how to test the validity of the newspaper articles. The ideas will be contributed to tommorrows class.
River Water Testing
The next step of the project then will be to do a complete analysis of the river to determine its health. This phase of the project is expected to take one week. The goal is to test the river water and do a survey of the condition of the overall health of the river. Mr. Paulson will break up the class into assigned groups which will be used to conduct a series water tests. The students will be assigned to the following test groups: BOD (biochemical oxygen demand, nitrogen, phosphates, pH, temperature, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, survey of micro and macro invertebrates and vertebrates, survey of plant life, and the depth and rate of flow of the river. The rest of the class period will be spent on how to conduct and what the purpose of the tests will be. The remaining minutes of the class period will be spent asking Mr. Paulson questions about the tests.
The following day the students will go to the river to conduct their tests.
The next day the students will compile, analyze, and discuss their results with each other. They will determine the WQI (Water Quality Index) determining the health of the river.
After this, the students will use Clarisworks to compile their information on a spreadsheet and write a conclusion on the wordprocessor about their results.
The next day the students will submit their results to put on a webpage and add the appropriate links.
Mr. Paulson will assess the progress as they go along the way.
Time Frame: 3 weeks
Learner Outcomes:
The test results would be compiled and an overall WQI (water quality
index) would be determined. The results would be relayed to other schools
(and other interested parties) on a internet web page .