The overall purpose of the St. Joseph’s Academy Water Quality Monitoring Project is to increase the students' computational science knowledge through the use of field and laboratory experimentation, technology immersion, and mathematical modeling as related to an environmental study of the water quality of Alligator Bayou in the upper Spanish Lake basin in Southeast Louisiana. All of the students involved in this project are enrolled in biology classes and have completed at least an algebra I course and basic computer applications. They do need additional training in modeling programs such as intermediate/advanced excel, Stella, and Java Script Design Tool.

As a part of this project, St. Joseph’s Academy high school students receive an initial training on wetland stewardship, which includes background information on wetlands monitoring & restoration and water quality testing. This training is the initiation of this particular instructional module within the biology classes. Students monitor and analyze water samples bimonthly. (We do this as an ongoing project but other schools may determine the timelines based upon individual needs.) Students use standard water quality testing equipment, CBL calculators and probes to monitor phosphates, nitrates, dissolved oxygen, air temperature, water temperature, pH, salinity, and turbidity. From an analysis of this data, collected over time, the biology and math students analyze develop mathematical models from the to determine trends or disturbances.

Detailed lesson plans, lab procedures, assessment rubrics, and samples of student work are included within this web. Please feel free to contact us if you would like additional information ( messinal@sjabr.org, armstroj@sjabr.org, smithm@sjabr.org ).