School Water Quality Project
Students from six elementary schools in the Plum Creek Watershed continue to play an active role in an innovative water monitoring program.
The Plum Creek water quality monitoring effort that GBRA Education Coordinator Cinde Thomas-Jimenez began during the 2006-2007 school year has continued into the 2008-2009 school year. Fourth and fifth grade students and their teachers, are conducting two rounds of water quality testing in the classroom. Students use a modification of the Texas Stream Team model for their monitoring and are analyzing water samples from Plum Creek and its tributaries for temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity, nitrates and phosphates.
After receiving enthusiastic approval from school administrators during initial stages of the project, Thomas-Jimenez met with and trained the participating science teachers and spent over a week in classrooms using a tabletop watershed model to discuss watersheds, nonpoint source pollution, and the Plum Creek project directly with the students. Water monitoring test kits, all needed supplies, watershed map posters, and student workbooks were donated to the schools by GBRA.