Water Quality Testing

We work with several partner programs, one of which gets students involved in water quality testing of area all over the county. It serves to get kids involved and excited about hands-on science. The learning curve was just about the same for us Americorps as for the kids, except for the teacher/parent training we attended and learned one test each. We were kinda thrown in (seems to be a trend). Basically we were given a group of 6th grade students and told to guide students through performing each test. Luckily there is a set of directions in each kit. It went surprisingly well. I found myself matching how Lorena had interacted with the kids over the first few weeks, and got through the first day quite well. Over the next few days, we ended up leading several 4-6th grade classes through testing first in the classroom and then in the field, rain or shine. Lets just say it’s very interesting keeping kids in line and focused when outside in the rain and cold, but I managed! By the end of this, I’d lead students in conducting test on pH, phosphates, nitrates, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and a stream-walk survey based off of one from the EPA, while learning why it is important in regards to the salmon life cyle☺ What a crash course in working with kids! And again, I wish I had stuff like this in elementary school!