August 2nd, 2014 was a pivotal moment in Toledo's history when it comes to fresh water. I remember the morning clearly. I received an alert message on my phone advising not to drink or use our faucet water in any way, and that boiling it would not solve the problem. I got myself together quickly and drove to the local Kroger's store, only to find that there was, at 5AM, already a long line of people waiting to get bottled water. For the next three days, an estimated one million Toledoans worked through a water crisis resulting from Lake Erie HABs (harmful algal blooms) which have been affecting this area for decades -- harmful myrocystins in the algal blooms, fed at least partially from nutrient runoff from farm fields, had infiltrated the Lake Erie city of Toledo water intake.
A Brief History of development of water testing at our high school...
I began a water testing curriculum with my 7th graders in the fall of 2013. In the spring of 2014, I received an award from Lourdes College for Eco-Educator of the Year through the
Science Alliance for Valuing the Environment (S.A.V.E.). I also was working in conjunction with
TMACOG to get a water quality testing program up and running. (
read the article here and read about our 2013-14 activities at
northwoodschoolscience.blogspot.com.) But, I had a problem. The creek where I wanted to test water was on private property, and after having the Ohio EPA training, I realized that this was not going to be a feasible place for our students to test our watershed.
Our school has twenty acres of farmland along Dry Creek,
which is about two miles from our school, but the land needed to be seeded with grass, and logistics needed to be worked out to make sure that it was safe and worthwhile for the students to travel to the land for water testing. With two extremely harsh winters, and a June of 2015 flooding in Northwood, seeding the land took longer than expected. It has finally been seeded with native grasses with the help of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. An account of the groups involved in collaborating in this process can be found in my "teacher of the month" article in
The Toledo Blade. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife was able to plant a cover crop of buckwheat in the summer of 2015, which allowed for me to complete a successful year of water testing activities on the land with 7th graders during the 2015-16 school year.
The week leading up to the Toledo water crisis...
Just the week before the Toledo water crisis I had such a great experience getting my Level One training with the Ohio EPA at the Raccoon Creek Watershed in Southern Ohio. I had completed other trainings regarding water quality in the past, but this one was special, because, in addition to the outside training we received, I was also introduced to the "Healthy Water, Healthy People" Curriculum. I recognized that this was the same curriculum which was highlighted on page 207 of the
Ohio 7th Grade Science Standards.
Putting it all together in the fall of 2014
Water quality testing training with the Ohio EPA and first-hand experience with a water crisis motivated me more than ever to pursue some type of water quality testing program with my seventh graders which would be real world science; a kind of science which would not only teach, but would have a lasting impact on the youth who will someday be responsible for our environment. This is where the ideas for a full-scale water testing program began. The OEEF mini-grant was instrumental in fully implementing a water quality curriculum with my students in the Fall of 2015. Understanding that creating, organizing, and implementing a water quality testing program took about three years is important. My hope is that others who are intent on creating and implementing an outdoor environmental science program or a water quality testing program will gain knowledge from my experience and be able to implement their program more rapidly.
