Nearly 100 students and teachers from participating Northeastern Wisconsin high schools will spend the day on the UW-Green Bay campus March 16 for the 16th annual Watershed Symposium.
The symposium brings together the high schoolers and UW-Green Bay faculty researchers who partner on monitoring the health of the Fox River basin through the initiative known as the Lower Fox River Watershed Monitoring Program. The day’s activities run from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., with the morning presentations in the Phoenix Rooms of the University Union free and open to the public. In the afternoon, participating students will have the opportunity to tour UW-Green Bay’s STEM Innovation Center and compete in a quiz bowl.
Among the highlights of the annual event is the opportunity for the high schools to share reports on their respective monitoring projects. The list of student presentations for Thursday include:
- Dana Lex, “Preparing to Do Water Monitoring With My Students” Ashwaubenon Creek Team
- “Understanding Water Chemistry” with Waupaca River Team Weyauwega-Fremont High School and Teacher-Lynn Ponto
- “An Overview of Abnormalities at Duck Creek” with Duck Creek Team – Green Bay Southwest and Green Bay West High School and Teachers – Stephanie Schlicht and Elona Winslow
- “Observing the Fox” with Fox River Team –Aldo Leopold Community School and Teacher-Mark Valentine
- “Getting to Know the Pigeon River and Potential Conservation Area” with Pigeon River Team – Etude High School, Sheboygan and Teacher – Chris Campbell
- “How to Improve Apple Creek Watershed” with Apple Creek Team -Appleton East High School and Teacher-Ryan Marx
The symposium opens with a presentation by Emily Tyner, UW-Green Bay director of Freshwater Strategy speaking about establishing a Bay of Green Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) and updates on the designation and future opportunities. Bringing a research reserve to Green Bay is an exciting opportunity for the region. Emily will explain what it will mean for the bay of Green Bay to have this designation and discuss the K-12 education and research opportunities that come with designation.
Research done through the Lower Fox River Watershed Monitoring program gives students an opportunity to do real science in their community and learn more about the importance of water. The Lower Fox River Watershed Monitoring Program will be celebrating 20 years of data collection this year, making it one of, if not the longest baseline data set for the tributaries of the Fox River. This is important to the community because it shows where possible nutrients are entering the water system and gives communities information that can make more informed decisions about nutrient containment, riparian buffers, and sources of runoff.
Partner schools involved in the Lower Fox River Watershed Monitoring Program are Green Bay West High School, Green Bay Southwest High School, Green Bay East High School, West De Pere High School, Weyauwega-Fremont High School, Appleton East High School, Oshkosh Lourdes Academy, Etude High School, Neenah High School, and Aldo Leopold Community School.
Both the symposium and Lower Fox River Watershed Monitoring Program are supported by Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin, NEW Water, Windward Prospects Ltd. (formerly Ario Wiggins Appleton Ltd.), Cellcom Green Gifts, and the sponsorship of the UW-Green Bay Natural and Applied Sciences academic unit and the Cofrin Center for Biodiversity.
Categories: Wisconsin, Education