Waterworks Archive

Using Environmental Monitoring as a Teaching Tool: The Triplett Creek Non-Point Pollution Assessment Project

by Brian C. Reeder
Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences
Morehead State University

The Gateway Regional Health Department wanted to determine the effects of non-point pollution in the Triplett Creek drainage area of Rowan County, KY. A study was designed to investigate realtionship between sewage treatment and a water-quality problem in the creek and some of its tributaries. Water collection and analysis for this USEPA funded project was conducted by numerous Morehead State University students, faculty, and staff. Involvement of all these people provided the agency with accurate data to propose sewer amendments while concurrently providing educational benefits.

Although the virtues of student involvement in research are well known and described in the literature, most projects rely on academically exceptional students. This project involved a large number of students of varied academic abilities (from junior year to graduate student). No academic qualifications other than registering for the class was required. Participants included all the students in three Ecology courses (required of all Biology majors--including pre-professionals and Environmental Science majors) and a Limnology course (required of all Environmental Science majors; an elective for Biology majors). Overall, more than 50 undergraduate students, with varying interests and abilities, participated in the study, along with Barry Tonning from the Health Department, Dr. Ted Pass and the staff of the Morehead State University Water Lab, and two graduate students--Tim Spier and Steve Davis.

Monthly sampling was started in September of 1994 and continued through August of 1995. All students were required to take field water samples and become familiar with the operation and calibration of field instruments to measure dissolved oxygen, pH , and conductivity. They also were familiarized with laboratory nutrient analysis (soluble reactive phosphorus, nitrate, nitrite, and ammonium). In the Limnology class, students also analyzed the samples for total suspended solids, total phosphorus, and Chlorophyll A. After all the samples were first analyzed by the students, a graduate student or professor then analyzed them to check for accuracy. Student data were almost always reliable.

Analysis of fecal coliforms and fecal Streptococcus were conducted by the MSU project, required competent lab help (in this case, graduate students) to insure that all the students had assistance at critical times during the analysis. Because the analyses were run over the course of a year in multiple classes, some students went through it twice (e.g. in Fall Ecology and then in Spring Limnology, or for an unsuccessful student, both the Fall Ecology and Spring Ecology classes). Under these conditions experienced students could help their peers.

Although the main tenant of "active learning," which many in the sciences call "lab," is to foster understanding and comprehension of material by using problem-solving activities; this type of attentiveness is not common for the majority of students in most campus labs. Although it is a subjective observation, it is appears that when student's are given the opportunity to confront a real problem in their geographic area, combined with knowing that their results are important (and may be going on to be submitted to a government agency), it greatly enhances the learning experience. Additionally, the Environmental Science majors, many of whom may eventually be employed in the Commonwealth, gain the type of "real world" experience they need to understand their chosen field. This project had positive outcomes for the USEPA, the Commonwealth's Natural Resource and Protection Cabinet, the Health Department, the MSU Water Lab, the students, and the professors.

Last modified: December 5, 1996

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Copyright © 1996 Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute
University of Kentucky