Proposal
Mill Creek Watershed and Bryn Mawr Campus
Pond
Kaitlin Friedman
In developing my proposal for the HHMI
Science Horizons Pre-College Science Education Internship,
I have consulted with Professors Don Barber and Blythe
Hoyle in the Bryn Mawr geology department and Neal
Williams in the biology department. During the summer
of 2006, I hope to work under the supervision of these
professors, namely Dr. Barber, to address important
issues surrounding pre-college environmental education
in the Mill Creek watershed, which includes the Bryn
Mawr campus. In order to interpret the condition of
their immediate surroundings effectively, young people
need both the conceptual understanding of how their
watershed functions and the skills necessary for assessing
their immediate surroundings. My hope is to develop
a program in which elementary- and middle-school students
can visit Rhoads Pond and the sections of Mill Creek
adjacent to Bryn Mawr’s campus in order to gain
a set of conceptual and practical tools they can use
to apply the science of watersheds to their own lives.
In order to design an effective educational program,
I must first gain a better personal understanding
of how our region of the Mill Creek watershed functions.
I plan to begin my project by consulting with Banny
Ackerman (the science director in the watershed classroom
at Radnor Middle School), Jean Wallace (the curriculum
director at Green Woods Charter School) other local
science educators, and written resources to determine
the essential data that students in primary grades
can grasp when learning about their watershed. I plan
to focus my collection of geochemical and ecological
data on these areas, and I will also work with another
geology major, Evan Pugh HC ’06, to perform
more advanced assessments of Rhoads Pond and Mill
Creek, based on the suggestions that Professors Barber,
Hoyle, and Williams have given us. We will develop
data collection protocols and standards for how to
interpret our data, and we will maintain records of
our results throughout the summer. I will work to
simplify these protocols and records so they will
be accessible to the visiting students, and, with
Evan’s web design skills, we hope to create
a webpage documenting our results, which will be available
to the general public (including local educators and
schoolchildren).
Throughout the summer, I plan to consult with local
schoolteachers, curriculum guides, and state standards
for science education to better understand how to
shape the afternoon field trip program and take-home
materials. Ms. Ackerman and Ms. Wallace have also
agreed to let me test the program on their students
once I am finished. Upon completion, I plan to work
with the Bryn Mawr College Center for Science and
Society to determine whether this program could fit
within the structure of the “Fridays in the
Lab” program already in place, or to work with
the education department, the civic engagement office,
and others at Bryn Mawr to determine another context
through which the school groups could visit our campus
for an afternoon.
Additionally, because I hope to realize
this as an actual field trip program, I will continue
work on this project throughout the school year by
working with local school groups. I hope to incorporate
an aspect of this project into my senior geology research
project, so it will be necessary that I continue working
on it well into the fall regardless of the time constraints
on the internship.
Meetings/Presentations/Workshops/Projects:
Presented
a poster at the Bryn Mawr College Science Poster
Session Sept. 7th,2006.
- Poster Title: "Monitoring Suburban Water Quality:
Using technology and field activities to teach science
and stewardship in the Delaware River watershed."
Evan Pugh and Kaitlin Friedman.
Presented a poster and abstract at
the 2006 Philadelphia Annual Meeting (22-25 October
2006), Paper No. 88-4--Booth# 104 in poster session
titled: "Collegiate Watershed Research Projects:
Opportunities for Student Learning and Community Involvement,"
Pennsylvania Convention Center: Exhibit Hall C, 8:00
AM-12:00 PM, Monday, 23 October 2006.
- Abstract: Pugh, Evan, Kaitlin Friedman,
Blythe L. Hoyle, Don Barber, Neal Williams and Victor
Donnay (2006). Monitoring suburban water quality:
Using technology and field activities to teach science
and stewardship in the Delaware River watershed. Geological
Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 38,
No. 7, p. 23.
- Poster Title: Monitoring Suburban
Water Quality: Using technology and field activities
to teach science and stewardship in the Delaware River
watershed) (1) Geology Department: Pugh Evan, Friedman,
Kaitlin, Prof. Hoyle, Blythe L., Prof. Barber, Don
(2) Biology Department: Prof. Williams, Neal, and
(3) Mathematics Department: Prof. Donnay, Victor.
Attended a one day conference of the
North American Association of Environmental Educators
in St. Paul, MN. There Kaitlin attended a workshop
on Public/private Partnerships in Watershed Education
by the Global Rivers Environmental Education Network.
10/14/06.
Continuing Research Projects throughout the 2006/2007
academic year:
- October 2006, Kaitlin prepared a pre-lab on Watershed
Ecology for a Bryn Mawr College (BMC) program called
Fridays in the Lab.
She worked on this project with BMC Geology-- Don Barber,
Betsy Reese and BMC Biology-- Peter Brodfuerer, Neal
Williams, Wil Franklin, Patricia Zaradic
- Kaitlin worked with Prof. Catherine Riihimaki on
a set of watershed education units designed for use
in middle schools in the Darby Creek watershed (namely,
Haverford Township schools). This project grew out
of her summer research and collaboration with Haverford
Township residents on the Haverford State Hospital
site.
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