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THE ENSO Phase III Community

Welcome to Phase III of the ENSO Student Research Campaign: "Water in Our Environment". You can share ideas, upload documents and post questions.

If you join this Community as a member, you will receive an email from other members who post to the forum, and your posts will be sent to everyone, so join us and start posting!

The group that was involved in the Global Water Quality Collaboration (GWQCG) will now be conducting their study on the GENESIS thread under the ENSO III Project. Please follow the link if you are interested in joining, participating or interested in following their work.

Message Boards

Global Water Quality Collaboration Group

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Robert Connick, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 55 Join Date: 6/18/12 Recent Posts
Collaboration Group
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Audra Kay Edwards, modified 6 Years ago.
Youngling Post: 1 Join Date: 3/30/12 Recent Posts
Helllo Everyone!   I am excited to be part of this group.  We will be collecting data on Friday. Look forward to sharing our results.  Thank you Brian and Robert for putting this together for us. - Audra Edwards (Hawkins, TX)
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Dorian Wood Janney, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 46 Join Date: 7/13/12 Recent Posts
What a fabulous idea! I will definitely be a part of this collaboration- Thanks!
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Gary Popiolkowski, modified 6 Years ago.
Youngling Posts: 7 Join Date: 6/19/12 Recent Posts
Howdy Everybody,
Glad to be a part of this cool project.  Thanks Bob for getting this together.
Make It An Awesome Day:-)  
Gary
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Jeff Bouwman, modified 6 Years ago.
Youngling Posts: 8 Join Date: 1/15/15 Recent Posts
Greetings! Jeff Bouwman from Shumate Middle School (Gibraltar School District) in Gibraltar, Michigan.  Looking forward to sharing some of the hydrology data collected by my seventh grade students.  I can also share some of the hydrology data collected in Grosse Ile, Michigan by my daughter Leah.  Per the norm, #GettingScienceDone! - JB 
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Christopher Newlan, modified 6 Years ago.
Youngling Posts: 3 Join Date: 6/19/12 Recent Posts
Greetings Bob and Great Idea.  We're in!  I don't think we can match your three times a week data collection but we have been collecting pond data since october on a mostly weekly basis.  I'll make sure we update our sites and enter the data so you can pull it off.  Also, some of the data and our questions will be in the next SODA webinar.  So glad reconnect.
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Robert Connick, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 55 Join Date: 6/18/12 Recent Posts
First I would like to thank Dorian and Brian for the great job they did today on putting together the webinar that involved countries from around the world. Being involved with many projects I can only imagine the amount of time and effort this required. Whatever they are paying you to do this is not enough :-)  I'm hoping most of you had a chance to view it but if not, I'm sure Brian will post it on the website. Also, Brian was a major factor in setting up this forum. The reason I said this is because people keep congratulating me on creating this forum and those of you that know me understand I do not have the technological knowhow to set something like this up. Thanks B. After viewing the webinar this morning, it was encouraging to see that many of the people involved with the ENSO project are collecting a lot of data on the same water quality parameters. The trick will now be to figure out how best to analzye it. Feel free to input suggestions. We have a GLOBE data expert in our area (Dr. Karen Moore) that I will touch base with. Enjoy the day.  Bob
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Robert Connick, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 55 Join Date: 6/18/12 Recent Posts
Happy Friday. Just a quick update on where we are with our Global Collaboration. So far, the groups from Texas, Michigan, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania have been able to join this forum. I had some issues working with my old high school in New York but they should be joining us soon. Other countries with schools we are hoping to join the group in the near future are from Thailand, Taiwan, Nigeria, Croatia and Finland. Thanks to Dorian for helping connect many of those schools. Also, after talking with Brian, our main goal this year seems to be to form a nice tight group that can communicate with each other. Students in Mahopac as well as myself will be trying to access the data from the schools that are collecting it and putting into GLOBE to determine how best to use it. Thanks for all of your time, patience and effort you have provided with this endeavor. Looking forward to the fruit it will bear. Enjoy the weekend.  Bob
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Marija Krajnik, modified 6 Years ago.
Youngling Posts: 2 Join Date: 11/11/13 Recent Posts
We Joined Your Community
Luigi Morfea, modified 6 Years ago.
Youngling Post: 1 Join Date: 1/11/13 Recent Posts
Hi everybody! It's great to see the collaboration group growing. In Mahopac, we will be taking data three times a week for the next three weeks at the Pre-Pond (SWS-5) and Post-Pond (SWS-7) sites. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
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Gary Popiolkowski, modified 6 Years ago.
Youngling Posts: 7 Join Date: 6/19/12 Recent Posts
Gary Popiolkowski
7th grade Science
Chartiers-Houston Jr./Sr. High School
Houston,  PA,  United States of America
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Robert Connick, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 55 Join Date: 6/18/12 Recent Posts
Hello to all. I would like to pass along some exciting news. Our Global Water Quality Collaboration Group applied for a grant from LACES to supply equipment and supplies to some of our members. Dixon Butler from LACES recently got back to me and told me that his organization accepted our proposal. Money from this grant will provide schools/organizations in Croatia, Nigeria and the United States with things like water quality test kits, a GPS and a weather station to help them collect the data we will be working with for our project. Thanks to all of the people who helped make this happen (especially Dorian who told me about LACES). Please keep doing your best to collect the data and putting it on the GLOBE website. As always, looking forward to working with you.  Bob
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Gary Popiolkowski, modified 6 Years ago.
Youngling Posts: 7 Join Date: 6/19/12 Recent Posts
4/27/18
pH   5
nitrates   0-5 ppm
phosphates   1 ppm
temp.  13 degrees C
DO  4-8 ppm
turbidity   20 JTU
salinity   1 ppt

Our latest rainfall measured pH of 5
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Robert Connick, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 55 Join Date: 6/18/12 Recent Posts
Hello H20Group. As of now, we are in the process of getting supplies and equipment to our members who requested them. LACES has been very supportive in helping us with this. The one thing I would ask is that if you have not already contacted our group with your GLOBE school/organization name and the sites that you will be putting your data on, please do so. After my daughters graduation, I will be spending time looking over the schools and sites to try and figure out how best to use the data/information and make it available for others to use. I will be asking members of our group for input since we have a lot of talent and experience here. If you are having trouble collecting data or are not sure when and how often it needs to be done, touch base and we will do our best to work with you. Thanks. God bless.  Bob
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Robert Connick, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 55 Join Date: 6/18/12 Recent Posts
Hi from Florida, USA. I hope everyone is doing well and still excited to start working on collaboration with the Global Water Quality Collaboration Group. As of now, I have checked the GLOBE website using the Retrieve Data tool to look at the people and their schools who have expressed and interest in working in this group. So far, I have GLOBE sites with data for the following: Jeff B. from MIchigan, Gary P. from PA, Chris N. from CT, Scott R. (aka. Luigi M.) from NY and Marija K. from Croatia. If you were not listed in the previous group, I was unable to locate your site with data on GLOBE. Some of you may have sent me this information and if you did, I apologize if I could not find your site. If you could take the time to send me the school and site information (after you check it on the GLOBE website) we would truly appreciate it. We have a grant that can provide materials to certain schools in our group but I feel I will not be able to use the money if we do not have more schools in more countries with GLOBE sites to accomplish our goals. We are still hoping to get sites from Thailand, Nigeria, Finland, Texas, Maryland and any other schools/groups that might be interested. If you receive this email and are no longer interested in participating in this collaboration, please contact me and I will remove you from our list (no hard feelings). If there is something going on that will delay you from working with us, please let me know. If there is something I can do to assist you in any way, contact me and I will do my best to help. If you think you might know of another school that would be interested, please feel free to send me the name and link/email. Thank you for your cooperation and attention to this request. I am hoping we can accomplish great things together. Sincerely, Bob Connick (Genesis Project Manager)
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Robert Connick, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 55 Join Date: 6/18/12 Recent Posts
Just a quick thank you to Jeff Bouwman (#gettingsciencedone), Akinwumiju Akinola (our representative in Nigeria), Marija Krajnik (and her great students), and Dorian Janney (our Maryland mermaid) for updating their information on the Google Doc that was sent out. This will make managing the data much easier (I hope). Special thanks goes to one of our senior members, Gary Popiolkowski, for being the first to send the picture of his water quality site. I didn't think about adding the pictures initially but when I put his picture in it made a great addition and others just kind of followed suit. So far so good. Also, I would like to change the name of our group to GENESIS (Global Environmental Network Evoking Science in Students). It is a lot easier to say "Genesis Group" than GWQCG. I hope you agree :-) This means that I will be in touch with Brian Campbell (NASA Ninja) to help me figure out how to make the necessary changes on GLOBE. 
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Robert Connick, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 55 Join Date: 6/18/12 Recent Posts
Kudos to the Connecticut Kids for adding the site pictures to the Google Doc! Also, the Croatian Crew added more photos allowing better visualization of where they are testing! Go Genesis Group!!
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Robert Connick, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 55 Join Date: 6/18/12 Recent Posts
Just a quick note to wish everyone a great summer. I will be keeping in touch using the GENESIS link on this forum to keep you up on what is still being done. I am not exactly sure how it will go but will see what kind of interest we still have in September when school starts again. Enjoy the day.  Robert (aka Bob) emoticon
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Robert Connick, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 55 Join Date: 6/18/12 Recent Posts
Hello. For those of you that have viewed or are viewing this thread, you need to read the third paragraph under "The ENSO Phase III Community" listed above. Thank you for your interest and our hope is that you will be able to join us in this endeavor to improve the water quality of our planet. 
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Robert Connick, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 55 Join Date: 6/18/12 Recent Posts
Hello from New York. My hope is that the summer went well with all of yol, sans-serif]u and that you are either well rested and/or exhausted and more knowledgeable from all of the activities you were involved with. Many people have been wondering where we should go from here regarding our attempt at putting together a global group to study water quality. My thought is to use the Scientific Method as we move forward. Step 1 would involve making OBSERVATIONS of the water in your area. Step 2 would involve coming up with a question (PROBLEM STATEMENT) derived from those observations (e.g. What effect is the landscape having on our water quality). Step 3 would involve researching (GATHERING INFORMATION) regarding the question (e.g. Is the land use in our area farmland, urban, suburban, paved, vegetated, etc.). Step 4 if forming a HYPOTHESIS. (Fertilizer from the surrounding land is increasing the nutrient content of the stream). Step 5: Experiment (TEST THE HYPOTHESES). Use GLOBE protocols to determine if your educated guess is correct. Step 6: ANALYZE THE RESULTS. (e.g. Results show an increase in nitrates after the area using fertilizers)  Step 7: FORM A CONCLUSION (e.g. The increase in nitrates has affected the water quality - increase in algae growth). Step 8: COMMUNICATE YOUR RESULTS: Monthly webinars by the GENESIS groups to let the world know what we are up to. 
Our hope is to start the webinars in September and go through until next May. If any of you would like to pick a month to present, feel free to to REPLY to one of Robert Connick's POSTS in the ENSO Phase III Community COLLABORATION FORUM click on the GENESIS Category then click on the GENESIS Thread or if that is too confusing, please just send me an email at connickr801@gmail.com. The months will be assigned on a first come - first serve basis. I will be working with all of you trying to find the best way to make this work. Please send me any ideas, thoughts, comments, concerns or questions you may have.
One last thing that I feel would make this important. Instead of just locating an issue with the water quality, I would hope that our groups would be taking steps on how they are working on improving the water quality and monitoring it to determine if their corrective measures are working. The idea is to IMPROVE the water quality, not just monitor it.
Since we are still receiving a lot of views on the Global Water Quality Collaboration Group thread, I will be sending this email out on that as well along with and email. I apologize if you receive this more than once. Eventually, I will only be using the GENESIS thread. Thanks again for your great work last year. Looking forward to working with you again this year.

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Robert Connick, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 55 Join Date: 6/18/12 Recent Posts
Thanks Audra. Looking forward to seeing your results. Please let us know what the name of the site is and what school it is under. Our information is under Mahopac High School: MHS Hydrology Site Pre-pond SWS-05 and MHS Hydrology Site Post-pond SWS-07.
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Robert Connick, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 55 Join Date: 6/18/12 Recent Posts
Good Morning G. First I want to thank you for sending your site picture to the GWQL Group. It's nice to have someone really trying to collaborate. Now I need to inform you that when you do send something to the group, do NOT click on "Post New Thread". What that does is create a new "thread" or group within the section we have set up. For instance, if you click on "Collabortation Forum" under the Phase III of the ENSO Student Research Campaign: "Water in Our Environment" site, it takes you to the THE ENSO Phase III Community. If you then click on Water Quality Collaborations it will take you to the THE ENSO Phase III Community Water Quality Collaborations. If you look under the threads, you will see "our study site" started by Gary P. above the Global Water Quality Collaboration Group. The way you should respond is by going under one of my posts in the Global Water Quality Collaboration Group and click on reply. This will keep your posts within the group. As you can see I have no idea how to control the fonts in this program but if this is too complicated maybe we can Skype today or sometime this week. Enjoy the day.  Bob
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Robert Connick, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 55 Join Date: 6/18/12 Recent Posts
Me again. One last thing. Will you be setting up the hydrology site as a GLOBE site or will you be sending your data via email/collaboration forum?
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Robert Connick, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 55 Join Date: 6/18/12 Recent Posts
Good Morning Jeff. Lots of rain here in New York today so I'm hoping to spend time with the collaboration group efforts. I went onto the Shumate Middle School GLOBE site and noticed it had 67 testing sites. I looked through them all and found one hydrology site: SMS Entrance - South Ditch Hydrology. Could you let me know the site(s) you plan on inputting your data into that you will be sharing with the collaboration group. Thanks.  Bob
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Robert Connick, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 55 Join Date: 6/18/12 Recent Posts
Hey Jeff. Thanks so much for getting back to me with the site names. I was able to go onto the GLOBE Visualization System and locate/retrieve the data from all five sites: 2017 - 2018 - 4th Hour - Pond Site 2, 2016 - 2017 - 7th Grade - Pond Study, Grosse Ile, MI - Detroit River, Grosse Ile, MI - Thorofare Canal, Grosse Ile, MI - Thorofare Canal 2. You did list a 6th site: SMS Entrance - South Ditch Hydrology, but I am guessing this will not be used for this project. As I receive more info from the other groups, I will work with the people from Mahopac High School in New York to figure out how to use it. Enjoy the day. We just received flash flood warnings until 2 this afternoon. Must be getting what you got over the weekend. Bob
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Robert Connick, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 55 Join Date: 6/18/12 Recent Posts
Good Morning Chris. I'm guessing it is as wet in Connecticut as it is here in New York. Just wanted to touch base regarding the site(s) you will be using to input the data for the collaboration group. I went to the David Wooster Middle School site and saw that you have 4 hydrology sites set up: Inlet STream Wooster Pond: SWS-01, Wooster Pond Inlet: SWS-02, Wooster Pond Outlet Stream SWS-03 and Wooster Pond SWS-04. Please let me know if you will be using one or all of them so we can keep track of what to use. Thanks.  Bob
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Dorian Wood Janney, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 46 Join Date: 7/13/12 Recent Posts
Thanks!!! It is amazing teachers and students around the world that give us our drive and committment!
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Robert Connick, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 55 Join Date: 6/18/12 Recent Posts
I agree Dorian. Is there a chance you could send me the link to the site that provides grants for GLOBE supplies and equiqment? I know you listed it during the webinar but unfortunately when I played the webinar on my computer it wasn't playing correctly. Thanks.  Bob
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Robert Connick, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 55 Join Date: 6/18/12 Recent Posts
Hey Dorian. I was just talking with Brian and he said that you have done some work with a school in Thailand. I remember looking at a post on one of the collaboration forum sites (I think) saying they were excited about joining the group but I can't seem to find where I saw it. I'm also not sure if it was the group we set up (Global Water Quality Collaboration Group) that they were excited about joining. Please let me know if you can provide any help with this. I would love to see if we could possible get them into the group. He also said that you might have connections with the group from Finland that presented in the last webinar. Thanks. Bob
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Dorian Wood Janney, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 46 Join Date: 7/13/12 Recent Posts
Sure- Dixon Butler started the organization- he is amazing! Here is the link: https://www.ylaces.org/
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Gary Popiolkowski, modified 6 Years ago.
Youngling Posts: 7 Join Date: 6/19/12 Recent Posts
April 20,2018 
11:00 am
clear cloud cover
Turbidity   20 JTU
Phosphates   2 PPM
Nitrates   0 PPM
Water Temperature   9.8 degrees C
Surface Water Temperature   8.4 degrees C
Air Temperature   11.2 degrees C
DO   8 PPM
pH   6
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Jeff Bouwman, modified 6 Years ago.
Youngling Posts: 8 Join Date: 1/15/15 Recent Posts
Robert, 
I will be sharing the hydrology data from:
  • 2017 - 2018 - 4th Hour - Pond Site 2
  • 2016 - 2017 - 7th Grade - Pond Study
  • Grosse Ile, MI - Detroit River
  • Grosse Ile, MI - Thorofare Canal
  • Grosse Ile, MI - Thorofare Canal 2
We had a lot of rain here over the weekend.  We were worried we were going to have to cancel today due to flooding. 
#GettingScienceDone
Jeff
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Gary Popiolkowski, modified 6 Years ago.
Youngling Posts: 7 Join Date: 6/19/12 Recent Posts
Sorry for the screw ups.  I'll be sending it via email/collaboration forum
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Gary Popiolkowski, modified 6 Years ago.
Youngling Posts: 7 Join Date: 6/19/12 Recent Posts
RE: Global Water Quality Collaboration Group

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Robert Connick, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 55 Join Date: 6/18/12 Recent Posts
Being an older gentleman like yourself, I do not consider what you did a "screw up". It is more of a "learning experience". :-)
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Dorian Wood Janney, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 46 Join Date: 7/13/12 Recent Posts
Hi Bob,

The teacher form Thailand is Kanakrat, and she is a very active and fantastic GLOBE teacher who works at a STEM school for highly capable students in southern Thailand. Our wonderful teacher from Finland is Liisa Virta. 
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Christopher Newlan, modified 6 Years ago.
Youngling Posts: 3 Join Date: 6/19/12 Recent Posts
So we have been a little slow in sharing out data but if you join the ENSO SODA Webinar we are going to try to include all of our data to date.  We started in October collecting and added protocols and removed them as weather, time and school schedule permitted.  We should even have some rough count macroinvert data as well, if we can get the samples we collected today processed by then. 

Curiosity question - while all of our data is kept in google sheets, and not all has been uploaded to the GLOBE website, would you prefer us to share a link to the sheets or wait for the (longer) update to the GLOBE website? Or is there another option? Also our kids have a little shout out to Shumate, Medford and Mahopac included...tune in to find out why!
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Robert Connick, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 55 Join Date: 6/18/12 Recent Posts
Hi Marija. I just worked with Islym at the GLOBE Help Desk and we tested to see if you are in the group. As you can see, you are. Congratulations Croatia and welcome to the group!!
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Robert Connick, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 55 Join Date: 6/18/12 Recent Posts
You are the man. After 2 pm on a Friday and still doing work. Needless to say I am very impressed. Not bad for an older gentleman :-)
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Gary Popiolkowski, modified 6 Years ago.
Youngling Posts: 7 Join Date: 6/19/12 Recent Posts
Got it done, just a little slower.  You know what they say, speed doesn't matter, forward is forward!!
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Robert Connick, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 55 Join Date: 6/18/12 Recent Posts
Hey Chris. Not a problem with the data. We can wait until you guys get a chance to put it up on the GLOBE website. Looking forward to finding out what the "shout out" is all about. emoticon
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Robert Connick, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 55 Join Date: 6/18/12 Recent Posts
Hey Gary. Hope the weekend went well. Thank your kids for the data. Any chance they could set up this site on GLOBE as a Water Quality site?? Enjoy the day.
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Dorian Wood Janney, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 46 Join Date: 7/13/12 Recent Posts
I had the pleasure of taking 8 outdoor environmental educators from the Montgomery County Public Schools out to do a stream study at the Lathrop E Smith Outdoor Education Center in Rockville, MD on Earth Day! WE documented our hydrology site and named it the OEA North Branch Rock Creek hydrology site. 

We were giving this a try for the first time, and weren't able to get the dissolved oxygen or the nitrate data as those tests were much more direction intensive that we had thought... But we did characterize many macroinvertibrates and found we have many pollution sensistive organisms, and we plan to return and collect data here at least four times a year- once per season.

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Robert Connick, modified 6 Years ago.
Padawan Posts: 55 Join Date: 6/18/12 Recent Posts
What a great way to spend Earth Day! Thanks for posting this Dorian. It looks like you had some great people to work with and that they enjoyed their time in the stream. Hopefully they will take this enthusiam back to the classroom with them. The site also looked very pristine. Your macro collection of pollution sensitive bugs seemed to back this up. 

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