Harmony Union School District
1935 Bohemian way, Occidental, CA 95465 (707) 874-1205
Coding in second grade
Mrs. Figueroa's second grade class has been busy with computer coding! She uses BeeBots which are programmable robots that look like bees. It’s a great way to support some key mathematical practices from the Common Core State Standards—reasoning, attention to detail, and perseverance. Not to mention the kids absolutely love it! You can see her coding sheet here.
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Water Quality Testing:
5th Grade Place Based Learning Project
Project: In late February the 5th grade students tested the water quality of Salmon Creek, the creek that runs in front of our campus. Working with John Parodi, a parent who also works for Point Blue, we tested the pH, nitrate, phosphate and dissolved oxygen levels. Two weeks later, in early March, the students brought samples from their place in the watershed to test! We compared the results and discussed why samples from different areas may vary.
Results:
pH- We found that the pH from all samples is within the normal range, meaning it is neither basic nor acidic.
DO-When looking at the dissolved oxygen levels, it’s clear that there were variations, even when testing the same sample. It’s clear that most water has healthy levels of dissolved oxygen, and perhaps the test that had 0ppm should be retested since it’s an outlier in the data. Additionally, we noticed that the spring water in Camp Meeker has lower dissolved oxygen levels, which makes sense since the water is coming straight out of the ground.
Nitrate- The nitrate levels seem to vary the most when looking at this set of data. The Johnson’s Beach sample was tested by three different table groups and all groups got very different results. It seems as if this test should be run again. It’d be interesting to test these nitrate levels during a less rainy season!
Phospate- The phosphate levels in all samples look healthy. This could be due to the heavy rains recently. It’d be interesting to test these phosphate levels during a dry season as well. Phosphate was recently banned from soaps so these levels are now lower than previous years!
Conclusions: All water quality samples look healthy, though it’s important to note that we are testing in a wet season. The 5th grade class should monitor sites throughout the year and compare the water quality during each season and compare the results. We should keep an eye on nitrate levels in our water.
Impact: High levels of nitrate can most likely be attributed to fertilizers from local vineyards and runoff from ranches. Ways to help minimize this impact on streams and creeks could be building fences around creeks to keep cattle out of streams and finding better ways to deposit fertilizer on crops as they grow to prevent runoff from rain.
pH- We found that the pH from all samples is within the normal range, meaning it is neither basic nor acidic.
DO-When looking at the dissolved oxygen levels, it’s clear that there were variations, even when testing the same sample. It’s clear that most water has healthy levels of dissolved oxygen, and perhaps the test that had 0ppm should be retested since it’s an outlier in the data. Additionally, we noticed that the spring water in Camp Meeker has lower dissolved oxygen levels, which makes sense since the water is coming straight out of the ground.
Nitrate- The nitrate levels seem to vary the most when looking at this set of data. The Johnson’s Beach sample was tested by three different table groups and all groups got very different results. It seems as if this test should be run again. It’d be interesting to test these nitrate levels during a less rainy season!
Phospate- The phosphate levels in all samples look healthy. This could be due to the heavy rains recently. It’d be interesting to test these phosphate levels during a dry season as well. Phosphate was recently banned from soaps so these levels are now lower than previous years!
Conclusions: All water quality samples look healthy, though it’s important to note that we are testing in a wet season. The 5th grade class should monitor sites throughout the year and compare the water quality during each season and compare the results. We should keep an eye on nitrate levels in our water.
Impact: High levels of nitrate can most likely be attributed to fertilizers from local vineyards and runoff from ranches. Ways to help minimize this impact on streams and creeks could be building fences around creeks to keep cattle out of streams and finding better ways to deposit fertilizer on crops as they grow to prevent runoff from rain.
