Are you familiar with watershed studies? There are loads of resources available; watershed, forest, and stream studies are excellent supplements to Biology. My undergrad degree was in Biology. I took Botany and Zoology. Guess what? If you don’t practice field botany you can forget the names of species. I like to work with a forester or watershed educator from the local Soil and Water Conservation District. If I’m planning a stream study, I bring an expert. If I want to take kids to a park and identify trees, I bring an expert.
Where should you start? Make a DIY Watershed; this site has very detailed instructions and questions. I live in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The USGS has an educational packet, Our Water, Our Lives, The Chesapeake Bay Watershed. The packet is designed for Grades 4-6. However, the lesson has the basic terms and concepts for watershed studies: estuaries, headwaters, stream flow, and runoff. Here is the USGS home page with water lessons: Our Water, Our Lives: California, and Our Water Our Lives: Floods—more than you need to learn about water!
One organization is Save Our Streams, sponsored by the Isaac Walton League. (This website has basic water tests.) Here is an introduction to BMIs or counting benthic macroinvertebrates, insect larvae, which are indicators of the stream’s water quality.
The environmental organizations and volunteers can be a lot. I encourage students to focus on the science and the experts’ knowledge. I stick closely to these volunteers when my teens do a study and keep the emphasis on the science and off opinions or politics. I get to know the science experts and learn who to trust. Sad, isn’t it? Usually, the volunteer wants to teach the kids about the stream, the riparian buffer, or how to identify macroinvertebrates.
The number of free resources about streams and watersheds is astounding. You can study streams with simple, inexpensive equipment. The problem often is the political bent of some organizations. You may want to do your own research and stream studies. Start with benthic macroinvertebrates and go from there.
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