Kids in the Creek

A Water Quality Monitoring and

Stream Ecology

Field Experience for

8th Graders

Teacher Manual

Presented by:

NC Cooperative Extension Service

Mud Creek Watershed Restoration Council

Tennessee Valley Authority

With assistance from:

U.S. Forest Service

Environmental and Conservation Organization

Blue Ridge Community College

Americorps – Project Conserve

Trout Unlimited

Introduction

Kids-in-the-Creek (KIC) is an active, hands-on, water quality education program for 8th grade students. Students participate in a 3-4 hour field experience in which they conduct real scientific work in the field under the guidance of professional scientists and educators from natural resource management agencies.

Students learn how field scientists assess and monitor water quality. Students participate in four activity stations on a rotating basis during the 3-4 hour work time. Stations include macroinvertebrate sampling, fish sampling, chemical testing, and an overview of stream ecology and evaluation of the riparian corridor. In the process, they gain knowledge of watershed ecology, biology, and chemistry. They gain science skills including data collection, synthesis, and analysis; measuring skills; taxonomic identification; and safety protocols. They also gain or practice social skills including cooperative learning, teamwork, behavioral self-control, and time management.

The program includes pre- and post-event classroom visits from educators from the sponsoring agencies, and this teacher handbook that contains all the planning and lesson materials needed to carry out the program.

Kids-in-the-Creek is a partnership between the presenting agencies and the participating schools. Each partner has a role to fulfill that is critical to the overall success of the program. Roles and responsibilities are outlined later in this handbook.

Experience has shown that hands-on, active, real-world field experiences often are among the most meaningful and memorable units of study in students’ school careers. Such experiences can provide long-lasting impacts in interest and motivation, as well as the content knowledge and skills they help students develop.

We appreciate your commitment to providing an exciting, memorable, and highly effective learning experience on the topic of water quality and we look forward to working with you.

Please address any comments, questions, concerns and suggestions to your program coordinator:

Diane Silver

NC Cooperative Extension Service

Henderson County Center

Mud Creek Watershed Coordinator

828 697-4891


CONTENTS

I) Introduction and Contact Information i

II) Table of Contents ii

III) KIC Curriculum Overview 1

Pre-Event Lesson 1

Field Day 2

Post-Event Lesson 2

Additional Resources 3

IV) Logistics and Planning 4

School Preparation Checklist 4

Schedule 5

Parent Letter 6

Behavioral Agreement (Rules of Conduct) 7

Permission Slip / Release Form 8

Chaperone Guidelines 9

Participant Equipment/Preparation List 10

Equipment provided by KIC 11

STUDENT HANDBOOK

I) Background Information 2

Know Your Watershed 2

What Makes a Healthy Stream? 4

Stream Assessment 5

Chemical Testing 5

Macroinvertebrate Sampling 8

Fish Sampling 10

Riparian Corridor Assessment 11

II) Student Handouts / Field Journal 13

Macroinvertebrate Sampling

• Pollution Tolerance Index data sheet 13

Chemical Testing

• Data sheet for chemical test results 14

Riparian Corridor Assessment

• Riverwalk checklist 15

Fish Index of Biological Integrity (IBI)

• Fish Sampling Data Sheet 17

• Metrics used with the scoring system 18

• Worksheet to calculate IBI 21

III) Appendix

Dichotomous Key for macroinvertebrate identification

Instructions for chemical test kits

Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for chemical tests

KIC CURRICULUM

Pre-Site Lesson

The pre-site lesson takes place in the classroom, prior to students’ field trip to the stream site. An educator from the Kids in the Creek program will arrange times to meet with all your classes to conduct this lesson.

A video of the Kids in the Creek program is available. We recommend you show the video to students prior to the pre-site lesson, as their first introduction to the program.

This pre-site lesson provides an overview of what a watershed is and how non-point source pollution is created, using a plastic Enviroscape™ watershed model. This will provide an introduction to various land uses, and demonstrate how sediment, chemicals, metals, salts, and oils can get into surface waters.

The pre-site lesson will also include a brief look at tailored maps of your county, your major watershed basin, and the watersheds of local streams in your school’s area (see tailored maps in the background information section, page x).

Finally, in the pre-site lesson, the instructor will review expectations for student behavior, review equipment students will need to bring, and answer students’ questions.

For the pre-site lesson, the instructor will need students to gather around the Environscape™ model, and then he/she will need to project overheads of maps for student viewing. Your assistance in setting up your classroom accordingly will be most helpful.

HOMEWORK:

After the pre-site lesson and before the field day, students need to read the background information provided in this handbook so that the stream activities will be meaningful for them.

Field Day:

The field day consists of students rotating through four activity stations at the stream site. Stations include macroinvertebrate sampling, fish sampling, chemical testing, and an overview of stream ecology and evaluation of the riparian corridor.

Please read the background information in this handbook for details about the curricular content of each station.

Please refer to all the logistics and planning materials in this handbook to ensure a safe, smooth and organized field experience.

Note that the fish sampling activity involves using battery powered electrodes to create an electric current in the water sufficient to temporarily stun any fish in the nearby area. The scientists conducting the work wear protective waders and rubber gloves to ensure that no part of their skin comes in contact with the water. Students will use the same safety gear and follow all of the established safety precautions to protect themselves from being shocked during the IBI collection.

Be assured that the IBI activity is extremely safe when all safety protocols are followed. Safety protocols are presented later in the student behavior contract later in this handbook. KIC staff is extremely serious about these procedures and practice a zero-tolerance policy for horseplay or failure to follow instructions. The participation of teachers and chaperones in providing diligent supervision is critical. The result is a meaningful, relevant, and SAFE learning experience.

The IBI procedure is also perfectly safe for the fish. Fish are stunned long enough to be netted and collected. They are quickly sorted, identified, and released. They recover fully within a few minutes and generally suffer no impacts from the study.

Students will need copies of the student handouts for their field day. We recommend that you package the background information and handouts to create a student field journal.

Post-Site Lesson:

The post-site lesson takes place back in the classroom, after students’ field trip to the stream site. An educator from the Kids in the Creek program will arrange times to meet with all your classes to conduct this lesson.

The post-site lesson involves synthesizing and analyzing the data students collected in the field for fish and macroinvertebrates. Using a computer spreadsheet, the instructor will lead students through the task of entering their raw data into the spreadsheet, and completing the worksheets to calculate the Index of Biological Integrity for the fish and the Pollution Tolerance Index for the macroinvertebrates. The analysis will culminate in some preliminary conclusions about the health of the stream that was sampled and discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of those conclusions.

Finally, information will be provided about local watershed projects and opportunities for further action to help conserve and restore local streams. We encourage you to consider becoming involved in local watershed projects as a class, as a follow-up to the Kids in the Creek program. We also ask for your assistance in working with students to share this information with their families, in an effort to reach more members of the community with local watershed information.

Additional Resources

(more information to be added)

Other water quality monitoring programs - networking opportunities

• Global Rivers Environmental Education Network (GREEN) - a program of EarthForce

• Save our Streams – Izaak Walton League

• Adopt-A-Stream – Environmental and Conservation Organization (ECO)

• Streamwatch - NC Division of Water Quality

GIS and mapping curricula and software

• ESRI

LOGISTICS AND PLANNING

School Preparation Checklist

___ Program dates and pre-and post-site lesson times scheduled.

___ Chaperones signed up-- KIC depends on teachers and parent volunteers to help lead and supervise student groups. A ratio of one adult per 15 students is required.

___ Chaperone Guidelines distributed to volunteers

___ Participant Equipment List distributed to volunteers – chaperones and teachers should bring lunch, water, raingear, etc., same as students.

___ Transportation (Students & Teachers) -- The school is responsible for transporting participants to and from the field site.

___ Release forms and behavior agreements distributed, signed and collected.

___ Parent letter

___ Behavioral Guidelines / Contract

___ Permission / Release Form

___ Participant Equipment List

___ Background information and student field sheets copied and distributed - (we recommend that you make a field journal for students containing pages xx – xx, plus a few blank sheets at the back).


Kids-in the Creek

Field Day Schedule

Leave School: 9:30_AM___

Arrive @ Site: 10:00_AM___

Orientation, teams, stations: 10:00 – 10:10

10:10 to 10:20 Put on waders A & B

10:20 to 11:00 A Fish

B Benthic/Bugs

C Water Quality

D Riverwalk

11:05 to 11:45 B Fish

A Benthic/Bugs

D Water Quality

C Riverwalk

11:45 to 12:15 Lunch Break (A&B out of waders; C&D into waders)

12:15 to 12:55 C Fish

D Benthic/Bugs

A Water Quality

B Riverwalk

1:00 to 1:40 D Fish

C Benthic/Bugs

B Water Quality

A Riverwalk

1:45 to 2:00 Out of waders, Load on bus

2:30 Return to School

Dear Parent:

Your child’s class will soon be participating in a science field day called Kids-In-the Creek.

Kids-in-the-Creek (KIC) is an active, hands-on, water quality education program for 8th grade students. Students will participate in a four-hour field experience in which they conduct real scientific work in the outdoors under the guidance of professional scientists and educators from natural resource management agencies. Originally developed by the Tennessee Valley Authority, the program is organized in Henderson County by the Land-of-Sky Regional Council of Governments and the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service. A number of agencies and organizations, listed below, contribute their professional time to provide this valuable learning experience for students.

In this program, students will learn how field scientists assess and monitor water quality.

They will participate in four activity stations: macroinvertebrate (bug) sampling, fish sampling, chemical testing, and an overview of stream ecology. In the course of the program, students will truly get “in the creek” for two of the activity stations.

We emphasize to you and your child that students are still in class during this outdoor experience. This is NOT a picnic, hike, party, or a day off. It is a learning experience that has been planned to enhance your school’s academic curriculum. We want to assure you that this program is carefully planned and implemented to ensure the health and safety of all participants while providing a top notch educational experience. Among the safety procedures established for the program is a set of behavioral guidelines which students are expected to follow. It is critical that students and parents understand that these guidelines are essential to ensure the safety of all participants. For this reason, the program adheres to a zero-tolerance policy for horseplay. Students who are unable to work within these guidelines may be removed from the program immediately and face disciplinary action upon returning to school. The behavior guidelines are attached. We ask that you review them with your child and that both you and your child sign them and return them to your RT teacher on Monday, April 27, 2009.

We are very excited to have the opportunity to participate in Kids-in-the-Creek. Experience has shown that hands-on, active, real-world field experiences often are among the most meaningful and memorable units of study in students’ school careers. Such experiences can provide long-lasting impacts in interest and motivation, as well as the content knowledge and skills they help students develop. We anticipate that your student will return home from this field day with new ideas, new enthusiasm, and many stories. We appreciate your support in providing an exciting, memorable, and highly effective learning experience for your child.

If you have any questions or concerns about this program, please feel free to contact us at school.

Sincerely,

Chad Neuburger

Eighth Grade Science Teacher

Apple Valley Middle School

(828)-697-4545

KIC Contributing Partners:

Land of Sky Regional Council of Governments
NC Cooperative Extension Service
Mud Creek Watershed Restoration Council
Trout Unlimited
U.S. Forest Service / Mills River Partnership
Environmental and Conservation Organization
Blue Ridge Community College
Henderson Co. Soil and Water Conservation District
Americorps Project Conserve

Kids in the Creek

Student Expectations / Behavioral Contract

Respect 1-2-3

All of the rules and expectations of the Kids in the Creek program can be viewed as falling into three categories of respect. The following guidelines are designed to make it easier for all program participants to work effectively together and to feel safe and free to learn. To ensure this positive learning environment exists, we expect you to honor the following items:

1) Respect for Others:

• Program leaders and instructors
• Your teachers and chaperones
• Your peers / • Other program staff such as volunteers, etc.

We expect you to be kind to all people, to behave in such a way as to help keep everyone safe and healthy, to be polite and respectful to the public (anyone enjoying the program site who is not part of your group), and to help keep program equipment and everyone’s personal belongings in good condition. This includes, but is not limited to:

• No horseplay – splashing water; throwing rocks or anything else; pushing, tripping, intentionally startling others, etc.