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Students use classroom lessons tohelp improve their local environment

Student-Teacher-Community Successes

Wetlands Work

Why was it such a struggle for my biology students toconnect what they were learning in the classroom to theireveryday life? How could I help my students learn tocollect, analyze, and make sense of data they manipulatedin the classroom? These two pressing questions initiatedmy search four years ago for a cross-curricular project inscience, math, history, and environmental science that re-sulted in an ongoing stewardship project.

I began by talking with friends and colleagues to de-velop ideas and locate sources of help and funding. Oneacquaintance recommended I brainstorm for ideas withthe Louisiana Sea Grant College Program education co-ordinator. Working together, we identified a historicallyimportant local wetland area, Alligator Bayou, whichwas in need of water monitoring. As it turned out, theproject that developed from this initial brainstormingserved to meet the needs of the stewards of AlligatorBayou, my students, and Louisiana Sea Grant.

Monitoring water qualityOur training on wetland issues and water monitoringbegan in November 1999. After a series of miniworkshopson wetland restoration, hydrology, nutrient recycling,and local history, we went to Alligator Bayou on a Satur-day for training. By that afternoon, students had col-lected their first water monitoring data, which includedfecal coliform bacteria cultures, pH, water and air tem-peratures, nitrates, phosphates, and dissolved oxygenfrom seven sites around the Alligator Bayou watershed.

We have continued monitoring the water quality pa-rameters every other weekend (even during holidays andsummer vacations) for four years since that first day oftraining—all on a volunteer basis. Today we use tradi-

Linda Mess ina andPamela Borne B lanchard

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tional wet chemistry methods, CBL, and probeware tocollect our water quality data.

Using data in the classroomI incorporate the collected data into my biology classes byteaching how to statistically analyze the data and howthe various parameters change with seasons and weather.Math teachers use the collected data to teach students tolook for relationships and trends. We also contribute ourdata to the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation’sWater Watch Program database. Several students haveused the project site and data as a basis for experimentalscience projects. Three students have even traveled to theInternational Science and Engineering Fair with theirecological work from Alligator Bayou!

Planting a seedFlood protection levees have altered the hydrology of thiswetland, resulting in year-round standing water in theAlligator Bayou watershed. Because cypress seeds need toexperience a wet and cold winter and spring, followed bya drier late spring and summer in order to germinate, nonew cypress trees grow in the swamp—year-round stand-ing water breaks the wet/dry cycle needed for germination.

Several months after we began monitoring the water-quality parameters my students participated in a cypresstree planting at Alligator Bayou. Even though bald cy-press is the Louisiana State Tree, the cypress seedlingswe planted that spring day were extremely hard to ob-tain because of a multiyear drought in Louisiana.

The lack of easily obtainable trees became the “seedidea” for the Coastal Roots Project (CR) that LouisianaSea Grant started a year later. In this project studentsgrow their own restoration seedlings from seeds atschoolbased nurseries. We are now one of 17 schools par-ticipating in CR across south Louisiana.

Our own schoolbased nursery funding came from asuccessful grant I wrote to the Louisiana Governor’s Of-fice of Environmental Education. This funding enabledus to purchase reusable seedling cups and trays, plantingmedia, fertilizer, and materials to build a cold frame inwhich to start our cypress seedlings in the winter. Louisi-ana Sea Grant paid for an automatic watering systemand a fenced-in nursery yard for our seedlings.

Through CR my students have learned about seedstratification, planting techniques, and nursery manage-ment. They analyze data on seed germination, growth,and survival rates. Students now understand why wemust take time to stratify the seeds before we plant them;this important step artificially mimics the wet/dry cyclethe cypress seeds usually receive in the swamps. Once ourseedlings reach planting size, we travel to a site to con-tinue the ecosystem restoration efforts we began fouryears ago at Alligator Bayou.

Passing on the knowledgeEach year, our more experienced water-monitoring stu-dents help train new students coming into the wetlandsstewardship project. Passing on knowledge is a wonder-ful benefit of the project. Our experienced students areconfident about their science skills and can back up thescience content they understand with action. Students areable to articulate why their wetland stewardship projectsat Alligator Bayou and other locations are important.

For the last three years, our students have participated asexhibitors at Louisiana State University–Louisiana SeaGrant’s Ocean Commotion event, showing more than 2300visiting K–8 grade students each year how we collect ourwater monitoring data and how we’ve been good stewards ofour wetlands. Students have spoken at Louisiana YES!, anenvironmental education conference for students, and toteachers at the Louisiana Environmental Education Sympo-sium. They have presented the results of their water monitor-ing data to the community and the media at LakePontchartrain’s Water Watch symposium.

I know my students understand the importance of protect-ing our ecosystems because they have seen with their owneyes what happens when we don’t. They understand thatknowledge based on data can help us understand and protectthese ecosystems. The search I began four years ago to find aproject to enhance my students’ science education has growninto a project that has benefited not only my students, but alsothe owners of Alligator Bayou and students at other schoolsacross Louisiana. n

Linda Messina (e-mail: MessinaL@sjabr.org) is a highschool biology teacher at St. Joseph’s Academy, 3015Broussard Street, Baton Rouge, LA 70808; and PamelaBorne Blanchard (e-mail: pamb@lsu.edu) is an assistantprofessor at Louisiana State University, Department ofCurriculum and Instruction, 223-D Peabody Hall, BatonRouge, LA 70803.

Student volunteers plant their school-grown cypress seedlings.

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