The Water Quality Project
Boston Latin Academy, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Materials and Resources
Field Trip Lesson Plans
Understanding Goals:
- Understand the importance of conducting a good site survey prior to testing for water quality, and be able to do it
- Understand how to make predictions about water quality based on your site survey
- Understand the proper field sampling and testing technique for each of the six water quality parameters
- Understand how to explain your field testing results in light of your site survey and the background information that you have on the site
Time needed:
We suggest taking one lesson for a pre-field trip discussion, and two lessons after the day of the field trip for lab analysis of samples and discussion of the data.
Field Trip Preparation:
To help you in preparing your field trip we have created a checklist that you can use as a resource or as a starting point.
Pre-trip discussion:
The following topics should be addressed, either in a whole-class discussion or through group work:
- Why we are doing the field trip
- The importance of doing a site survey and making predictions of water quality
- What to look for in a site survey
- How to make predictions based on the survey / any background information available
- Field sampling and testing techniques that are different from the lab
- Sample storage and transport and waste disposal
- Trip logistics, organization, expectations, safety
- Handouts / forms the students will use
Homework: See the Field Trip Homeworks handout
The Field Trip
To see how the field trip could run, take a look at the Field Trip Student Handout and Field Trip Group Leader Handout.
We found that it took us less than 3 hours to complete all the on-site work.
Post-Field Trip
- Groups should analyze their TH and FC samples from the field trip. If you had students working in large groups you may want to have them split up here to expedite the analysis process.
- Make sure that you have all the data by class; tabulate it and find the averages.
- Discuss the validity of the groups' predictions and any differences with the results. Were the predictions accurate? Why or why not? What other factors could account for the differences? Also compare the averages for the different classes. Are there significant differences in any water quality parameters between the different sites? Why or why not? How much did the sites differ? Did the "sample wait time" before analysis differ significantly between the different classes, and could this have affected the results?
- Discuss with the students the strategies and methods they found effective for working in the field. What were the main difficulties?
Homework: See the Field Trip Homeworks handout
Field Trip Comments and Alternatives:
The field trip is an essential component of this unit since it gives the students practice in conducting water quality work in the field and prepares them for later independent work on their projects.
If, however, you are unable to implement a field trip, here are some suggestions for what you can do instead:
- Conduct the Pre-trip lesson as above, and have the students read the site surveying handout and complete the homework
- Choose one accessible test site for each class, and as a homework, assign the students to complete a survey and make predictions about water quality at this particular site. You should provide the students with some background info about the site as well.
- Each group should bring back a few samples (divide up the responsibility) and then conduct 2-3 tests in the lab so that you have more than one trial for each sample.
- You can then discuss the results and field work issues in the same manner as outlined above.
Field Trip Materials and Handouts:
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