RE: Dirty Feet = Better Wetlands - Collaboration Forum - El Niño

Hey People. I just sent the grant proposal into YLACES and one of the questions they would like me to answer was a list of all of the schools that are involved in GENESIS (Global Environmental Network Evoking Science In Students. I believe I can dig up most of them but it would save me some time if you reply to this post under this thread with the name of your school, the state/country it is in and the name of the person in charge. Thanks so much for doing this. I understand this is a busy time of year but I am trying to get supplies to schools in Croatia and Nigeria and it requires the help of this group. Bob

Dorian Janney, Outdoor Education Association, Brian Shilling, Lathrop E. Smith Outdoor Environmental Education Program; Maryland

Jeff Bouwman - 6th and 7th Grade Science Teacher
Shumate Middle School (Gibraltar School District)
Gibraltar, Michigan - United States of America
Shumate Science - #GettingScienceDone

YLACES is AWESOME!! Check out Gibraltar School District WeatherSTEM!!

Our research groups just got back from the Southeast Research Syposium after presenting their research on water filters that were used after Hurricane Maria destroyed our island.  We are currently working with a group that donated water filters to Puerto Rico https://waterfiltersforpr.com/ and two Nigerian schools to see if they can get access to these water filters.  After hearing the two Nigerian Schools speak at the previous Webinar how 70 % of people in Nigeria do not have access to safe drinking water, we started a collaboration with them and Water Filters for Puerto Rico folks.
We invited all of you to join the upcoming Webinar to hear about our research and collaboration:

Sorry for responding lately.
Name: Olawale Oluwafemi
Organization: Centre for Geodesy and Geodynamics, Nigerian Space Agency, Nigeria
Affliated Schools: Baptist Secondary School, Jos, Nigeria
                          Federal University of Technology Akure, Nigeria
email:walefemi007@yahoo.com

Good Afternoon from New York. I hope all is well where you are. We just finished celebrating our independence here in America on July 4 and one of my favorite quotes is from Edmund Burke, an Anglo-Irish statesman: 
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. 
I am not sure of what the future holds for the GENESIS project and the continued development of a global water quality collaboration group but I will be working this summer with teachers and students in New York to see what we can put together. I appreciate Akin sending this:

I will advice that we come up with a template that will serve as a guide on what data to collect and when to collect them. We (The FUTA GENESIS Group) usually make our measurement every Tuesday between 11.30am and 12.30pm (GMT+1). Bob, kindly draw up the best time for data collection for all the members (in different countries and regions) of the group. This will ensure data harmony and meaningful/reliable comparative analysis of the data at global level.

The data we should collect are for the parameters listed on the GLOBE Hydrology site and the ones included in the Excel files I sent. Ideally, the data should try and be collected once a week between 10 am and 2 pm local time. It should then be entered into the GLOBE site for your group so it can be viewed by all. Thank you in advance for your time, effort and cooperation. Enjoy the day. Sincerely, Robert/Bob

While a lot of students take time to relax and enjoy the time off from school during the summer, a group of Mahopac High School students and teachers decided to do battle with invasive species. The adopted motto for our group is "No problems, only solutions". The wetland in front of the high school has been overrun with plants like bittersweet, multiflora rosa and wild grape, threatening to decrease the diversity of the flora. The pictures included show how the road was not visible before the invasives were removed and then how you can see the road after the treatment. This Genesis group is presently working with a college and a state agency to help them remove the intruders and replant native species. It was learned that the invasives produce flowers with a higher sugar content then the natives, which do not provide the longer term nutrition needed to suvive the winter months very well. Enjoy the day. 

Hello from New York. I wasn't sure of the best way to send the Excel files with the water quality information that was collected by the GENESIS groups so I apologize if you get this information twice. I have attached the information I was able to gather and generated averages for the parameters tested. I hope you get a chance to look it over. Enjoy the day. 

MHS Genesis girls Alyssa and Morgan took to the stream in front of Mahopac High School to collect water quality data. The result: lots of good information and wet, dirty feet. They collected water samples from a site before and after a pond (pre and post pond) where floating islands have been put to test their efficacy in removing nutrients and suspended particles. These girls are also working with Dr. Alyssa Perrone on a pilot study of Lake Mahopac to determine the effect of land use on the water quality. Just an idea of what motivated students can do when given the chance.

Congratulations to Mrs. DiGuglielmo for setting up a GLOBE water quality study site, collecting samples, running tests and then entering the data into GLOBE. This is important in helping to maintain the momentum we have in establishing a global water quality study group. The reason for water quality studies at this site is shown in the pictures. While collecting water, we noticed a backhoe upstream. We are not sure of the reason but it was removing plants from around the stream. The effects on the water quality can be seen in the pictures by the change in transparency/turbidity. Before the work started, the stream had a transparency of 0 JTU's (Jackson Turbidity Units). After the work took place, the reading went above 100 JTU's. Our hope is to find out why the work was being done and to work on preventing further damage to the stream. Another observation was the presence of Canadian geese. These birds have created a "poop problem" in our area. Continued monitoring of this water course will help establish a baseline so changes can be detected and dealt with.

I hope this correspondance finds all of you doing well and enjoying the last bit of summer. The MHS Genesis Group finished up their wetland work last week on an interesting note. The good in the picture with the ramp in it is that it is designed to allow people with physical disabilities to get involved with water quality studies on the stream in front of the high school. The section nearest the stream lifts off so a person in a wheelchair can lean over the side and lower a probe or collect water samples to be tested. It was installed as part of the Genesis Project and is one of the only ones in the state. A person from the American Disability Office came in his wheelchair and tested it out. He said it was great and wished his school had one when he was in high school.
The bad can be seen in the same picture. Providing a riparian buffer around the stream blocked much of the grass clippings from entering the water when the grass was mowed. Unfortunately, some of the clippings are still finding a way into the stream. We are working with the groundskeeper to improve the practices of the workers to help decrease the clipping from entering the water.
The ugly is a little hard to notice in the picture without the ramp but the plants growing on the left of the photo are doing so because of the sand/gravel/silt entering the stream from a storm drain. A specially designed catch basin was installed to help reduce the input but it requires the town to clean it periodically. The town has agreed to cleaning it more often and we look forward to seeing the results in the stream. Enjoy the day.

Hello All. Just a quick note to welcome the newest member of our group from Chartiers-Houston School in Pennsylvania. He will be replacing Gary Popiolkowski who is retiring from teaching but not from GLOBE. Welcome aboard Steve. We look forward to having you eventually becoming involved with GENESIS once you establish yourself in the new school. Enjoy the day.  Bob

Hello from New York. My hope is that the summer went well with all of you 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.

Hello to all of you from New York. As always, I am looking forward to working with this great group of GENESIS people especially after last years webinars. There have been some exciting developments that have occurred and I would like to share them with you.  First, I would like to welcome a new member to the group, Berthy Buah, the GLOBE country coordinator from Ghana (thanks for making the connection Brian). She is looking to get her students involved with GLOBE water quality studies. I'm hoping we can help her become part of the family. The last time I contacted our educator in Maryland, Dorian, she was running around the world setting up the mosquito campaign GLOBE will be running this year. Best of luck D!  Our friend Akin this summer in Nigeria has been involved with a plan to embark on a mini public health campaign in their community to educate the people on the danger of consuming water taken from streams without treatment that may contain E. coli bacteria. We wish him well on his endeavor and hope to hear of his success.  Audra from Texas has touched base and is now teaching high school students. They plan on dedicating every Friday to GLOBE research (You go girl!!). Jeff, our star teacher from Michigan, is getting his group up and running and has a new student who will be working in Gibraltar which is on the Detroit River. She is being trained in probe work as we speak (#getting science done).   Our new girl, Amy from Indiana USA writes: I’m now a sixth grade math and science teacher this year in an elementary.  It is different from the middle school, but I’m excited about it!  I working with a Purdue scientist and hoping to get a Globe project started in Sept./Oct. with my high ability kids. Good luck Amy. We are looking forward to hearing from you. Our teacher in Mahopac N.Y., Scott, was busy running GLOBE water quality tests on the stream in front of the high school to try and determine if the floating islands were improving the water quality. Grant money allowed him to hire 4 students to help with the work (He also brought his 2 sons who worked for free). Our star student, Sydney, has moved on to higher education at Princeton University where she will be studying to be a chemical engineer. Good luck young lady. I have come out of retirement (again) and am working with Carol at Horace Greeley High School in New York. We hope to put together a group to study the stream on campus to try and determine why there is so much algae. Speaking of coming out of retirement, our Pennsylvania member, Grandpa Gary, will be keeping his replacement Steve in the loop during Steve's first year at his old school. Our Connecticut Connection, Chris, has spent some time in Washington DC helping with the JASON project (a program designed to inspire students in STEM careers) and taught in China. Hopefully he helped develop a GLOBE school while he was there :-)  Our friends in Croatia with their teacher Marija are set up to do studies this year thanks to the efforts of Dixon with YLACES and the people from Hach. We look forward to Skyping with them again this year. If I have missed anyone and their adventures, I apologize and hope if there is something you would like to add, please feel free to do so. My hope is to use the scientific method this year to drive our projects. Let's go make the world a better place. Sincerely, Bob

Students and teachers got together to collect and analyze macroinvertebrates from the stream in front of Mahopac High School in New York to determine if the addition of a riparian buffer around the stream is making a difference in the amount and type of macros in the water course. Most of the plants around the stream were provided by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation for free through their "Trees for Tribs" program and planted by the students. Students used the GLOBE macroinvertebrate protocol for "All Habitats" for their work. This will allow them to compare data that was collected in 2010, 2012 and 2014. Today on Make a Difference Monday, we will be inputting the data onto the GLOBE site to draw conclusions. Enjoy the day!