CRESCENDO is a partnership between Washington State University Vancouver (WSUV) and five high schools focused on the ecology of the Columbia River Estuary (CRE). We investigated two questions:
1) What are the links between upstream watershed processes, land use practices, and downstream estuarine health, as indicated by nutrients and invasive zooplankton in the CRE?
2) What are the links between high school students’ understanding of CRE ecology, their participation in authentic scientific research, and their perceptions of and attitudes toward the CRE landscape?
Over a two-year period (2016-2018) science teachers at five high schools distributed along ~160-rivermile estuarine gradient led their students in monthly dock sampling near their schools to measure water quality (T, pH, DO, NO3, PO4, NH4) and zooplankton composition and abundance each year. The students analyzed and posted their water quality data into a shared database, and retained one replicate plankton sample for qualitative microscopic examination. The remaining plankton samples were quantitatively analyzed by WSUV scientists. WSUV faculty members visited each school once per semester, and each spring teachers and students attended a Research Symposium at WSUV to discuss the year’s results and interpretations. We also conducted pre-/post- assessments and small group interviews with the students.
Results/Conclusions
Preliminary results demonstrate that local inputs may be more important relative to downstream transport of nutrients in the CRE, suggesting changes in local land use could lead to changes in estuarine water quality. In addition, we found students to be very enthusiastic about working with university scientists, and that participating in the scientific research increased students’ awareness of local land use on the CRE and the overall ecology of the estuary. Teachers are also aligning their course content with Next Generation Science Standards and report increased student engagement.