Teachers today are connecting their classroom
work with the larger community and sculpting learning environments that
permit their students to apply what they learn to "the real world." One
way teachers bring this contextual background to student work is to examine
local water (or air) issues. Probably no better focus on these issues is
the study of watersheds, or even more specifically, of wetlands! Wetlands
team with myriad forms of life (and non-life) for study. The role of wetlands
in cleaning the water a community drinks can be the springboard not only
for study of wetlands and water topics, but for problem solving lessons
on how communities protect resources The internet and the web can be a
motherlode of free, current information and resources about these issues
for both teachers and students. However, the internet/web is expanding
at such a fast pace, that an on-line search of available web resources
on "water" returns over a million links, and 100,000 on just wetlands!
In this article is a "top ten" list of sites for wetlands and water quality
resources I have found useful with my students.
This page is available until December, 1997 online
at http://www.canby.com/hemphill/osta-mar.html
http://gamstcweb.gisd.k12.mi.us:8000/~twheatle/index.html
WETNET is a high school Water Quality Monitoring
project in the Saginaw Bay Watershed. Its focus is the "Hands-on Learning,
Data Management and Interactive Maps on the Web." It is included here as
a model for a cooperative school project; it publishes the water quality
data gathered by over 60 elementary, middle, and high schools in the Saginaw
Basin (MI). Nine water quality tests are described at http://gamstcweb.gisd.k12.mi.us:8000/~twheatle/informat.html
(however, the links were not functioning in February).
http://www.sws.org/
The Society of Wetland Scientists, a non-profit
organization for focusing on "innovative and high quality wetland research"
as well as management, maintains this site to provide education on wetlands
and to encourage the exchange of wetlands information among both professionals
and students. The page houses a current link to the most recent issues
of their Journal. The Wetland Web Sites page, http://www.sws.org/wetlandweblinks.html,
contains an extensive list of primarily government and educational sites
dealing with wetlands (unannotated).
http://www.wetlands.com/coe/87manapd.htm
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Wetlands Delineation
Manual probably provides one of the most technical resources on-line. The
links on this page lead to technical definitions and descriptions of hydrophytic
vegetation, hydrid soils, wetland hydrology, and methods. A fairly detailed
glossary is also available. The manual is available for download in pdf
format, which requires the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.
http://www.epa.gov/OWOW/wetlands/index.html
The Wetlands Division of EPA's Office of Wetlands,
Oceans, and Watersheds provides links for wetlands resources and current
U.S. legislative information, including President Clinton's 1995 speech
in support of the Clean Water Act wetlands programs. There is a link to
EPA's current efforts to protect ecosystems, one to wetlands hotline, and
to educational resources for teachers. One resource in particular is a
video on Wetlands Water Quality Standards that is available for borrowing
by teachers. This page also has five lovely wetland flower gifs--you will
need to identify them since no names are provided.
http://www.epa.gov/OW/facts/contents.html
The most valuable link for many teachers on the
EPA wetlands page! This site provides links to background papers on the
quality of our nation's water, on the value and functions of wetlands,
on wetlands protection, economic benefits, and consequences of lost wetlands.
The information is presented in student- (and teacher-) friendly terms.
Technical information is also available.
http://www.epa.gov/epahome/students.htm
The Students and Teachers Page of the EPA provides
links to teaching aids, curricular materials, and fact sheets not only
on water quality issues, but on a wide range of environmental issues. At
the bottom of the page is the link to student posters.
http://water.usgs.gov/
or http://h2o.usgs.gov/
The U.S. Geological Survey Water Resources Information
page provides general links dealing with water quality issues. One link
provides real-time hydrologic data, as they put it "from the stream to
your screen." Fact Sheets dealing with water pollution topics are available
at http://water.usgs.gov/public/wid/index-environ.html. One link on this
page deals with whether "created" wetlands can adequately replace wetlands
that have been destroyed. Another links deals with nitrate contamination.
The mother-page contains GREAT links to fact sheets on fuel, metal, and
other resources as well!
http://www.wa.gov/ecology/shwr/shorelan.html
The Washington State Department of Ecology provides
information on many environmental topics (air, water, solid waste, nuclear
waste, hazardous waste) at the www.wa.gov/ecology site. This Shorelands
and Wetlands page provides a few specific links for wetlands guidelines
and stewardship in Washington. The Department of Ecology also provides
for on-line requests of their brochures.
http://www.gene.com/ae/WN/SU/wet596.html
"WETLANDS UNDER SIEGE IN CITIES ACROSS NATION"
By Sean Henahan of Access Excellence is a 1995 article written for the
journal Wetlands. Mr. Henahan cites a Oregon State University on the "rapid
destruction of wetland areas around Portland, Ore." A short article of
interest for those in Portland and the Willamette Valley.
Not included in the Top Ten, but perhaps worth
a look....
http://www.teleport.com/~oeschem/wt96/wt96map.html
{This site is not longer active}
You are invited to look at the student wetlands
effort of Oregon Episcopal Students. This URL is for work students are
doing during the 1996-97 school year and is currently under construction.
Their work through January is uploaded in February; students maintain their
pages through May. The site becomes dormant until the following January.
ADDENDUM:
http://www.upa.pdx.edu/CWSP/WATSHED/
This URL was found after this article had been
submitted. However, it should prove a great resource to watershed teachers
in the Portland area.....