In Their Own Words

This grant application supports the Elm Creek Project for AP Environmental Science. This is an outdoor, hands-on, “real-life” project, and one that I have been doing for a number of years. However, our equipment is getting old or broken, and class sizes have been getting bigger. So I am hoping to increase the number of groups from 5 or 6 to 8 groups per class period (so 4-5 students per group), with each group having their own set of equipment.

The Elm Creek Project has four parts. The ultimate goal of our Elm Creek Project is to assess the health of Elm Creek and report the data to a mock city council of Plymouth.

As of Fall 2024

We just finished up with our big Elm Creek project a couple weeks ago. I was awarded a couple of new probes, one to measure turbidity/suspended solids, and the other to measure oxygen levels. We do a series of tests in the creek in order to come up with a "Q" value that indicates water quality. We use the probes to help us with this. Kids also collect macroinvertebrates and identify them in the lab. These insects can help us determine creek health as well. In the end, students do a mock presentation to the "city of Plymouth" (our class), to report their findings and interpret data.

Status: funded in May 2024, fully in use in SY 2024-2025.