Lesson Plans - Virtual Classroom
Water Quality Project

Sherry Schaaf, Coordinator of the Washington Virtual Classroom, a unique project - Take a look!

Website: www.forks.wednet.edu/wvc/cadre/waterquality/index.html

Twelve districts in the state of Washington are now participating in the fifth year of the Washington Virtual Classroom's Water Quality Project.

The water quality monitoring project of the Washington Virtual Classroom (WVC) involves twelve school districts in Washington State (Quillayute Valley in Forks, Brewster, Wapato, Wellpinit, White Salmon, Concrete, North Franklin, Ocosta, The Washington State School for the Deaf in Vancouver, and Adna). WVC provides elementary, middle and high school students with the exciting opportunity to investigate the health of salmon spawning streams in their different areas. Using both qualitative and quantitative testing parameters, data is maintained, compared, and evaluated throughout the year.

Students ideally visit several locations along the streams they have chosen to study. They share information and teach each other via videoconferencing throughout the year. The Water Quality Project has also developed an on-line stream studies curriculum at the following website, (www.wavcc.org/wvc/cadre/WaterQuality/elemMSNew.htm), for schools, from grades 3-9 with extension activities for high school. This curriculum is integrated with the creative arts.

In providing our students the opportunity to communicate with others in the WVC consortium in the many varied parts of our state we are allowing students to learn about the diverse ecosystems and habitats of areas much different from our own. Learning about problems and solutions that others have to deal with that may be different than our own allows students to see just how large an issue salmon habitat restoration or maintenance is throughout our entire state. It is not a local issue, but rather one of state, national and global concern.

• Students learn about water quality issues in the context of their study of ecosystems.
• Students raise coho salmon in the classroom and release them into the creek in late winter/early spring to begin the process of restoring the creek.
• Students will use Palm handheld computers with probes to facilitate their testing of the water at various sites.
• 7th graders will mentor third graders. Both groups will be getting together in the classroom and on field trips, with the older students showing and explaining to the younger ones the tests, the use of the Palm handheld computer with probes, the life cycle of salmon, and other pertinent information.
• Students test for dissolved oxygen, temperature, pH, fecal coliform, nitrates, phosphates and turbidity and also observe the riparian zone over time. Data is analyzed and put on the WVC data base. Students also study macroinvertebrates as an indicator of stream health, keying out representative samples and developing a biotic index.
• Field trips are taken in the fall, winter and spring, with results from all three visits compared and analyzed in late spring to come up with an overall stream health indicator.
• Videoconferencing is a large part of what the classes do. These students teach the other classes in the Washington Virtual Classroom how to do the water quality testing.

LaMotte Resources Used in this Washington Virtual Classroom Water Quality Project:

GREEN Low Cost Water Monitoring Kit Code 5886: an individual or small group introduction to water quality monitoring, 10 tests each, 8 factors

GREEN Standard Water Monitoring Kit Code 5848: large class or multiple sampling locations and dates, 100 tests each, 44 Coliform tests

Wet Your Waders Code 5929: CDROM Virtual instructions and field guide for GREEN and TesTabs® water quality monitoring test methods

Leaf Pack Experiments Stream Ecology Kit Code 5882: Macroinvertebrate Stream Study, complete classroom set of collection, sorting, and identification apparatus, comprehensive instructor's manual, field and data sheets, bioindex calculation of stream health