Microscopes and notebooks in hand, the students from River HomeLink, a public school program offering academic services to homeschooling families, tested for dissolved oxygen, looked for mayfly larvae and checked phosphate levels in the creek, which runs through downtown's Central Park en route to Salmon Creek.
For the second year in a row, they were beginning their monitoring of Woodin Creek as participants in the Watershed Monitoring Network, a program of the Water Resources Education Center in Vancouver that trains students and teachers how to monitor water quality and habitat in Clark County streams, lakes, rivers and wetlands.
The program is funded by the City of Vancouver and by Clark County, and the intent is to give kids hands-on experience with the scientific process, as well as to teach them about stewardship of local waterways. Students log their findings on a NatureMapping water quality database supported by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the University of Washington, and the information is used as a first alert for local agencies.
Cory Samia, water and wetlands educator for the Water Resources Education Center, said that since the Watershed Monitoring Network's inception 15 years ago, it has worked with 3,000 students, 50 teachers and 21 schools in Clark County. All of the services and equipment are free to the schools, but no funds are provided for transportation.
"Our primary goal is to get the kids involved in their own backyards. We're happy we don't have bus money because we want them to walk out their front door and find out about something that's in their own neighborhood," Samia said.
Before the River HomeLink school moved to Battle Ground in 2011, students monitored a small unnamed creek that feeds into Round Lake, near their former Camas school site.
River HomeLink teacher Susan Remmen has been taking third- and fourth-graders out to study local watersheds several times a year for the last eight years. Fifth- and sixth-graders also take part in the field study, giving some students four years of experience with the program.
When they first began monitoring the creek in Camas, students noticed a high fecal coliform count in the water, indicating possible sewage contamination. The students wrote letters to people with homes along the creek, notifying them of the possible danger, and reported their findings to Clark County. Remmen said that the county didn't have the resources to follow up on the problem, but her students continued sleuthing.
They developed theories about where the contamination might be coming from, and tested those theories before running into a dead end, in the form of private property along the creek.
So far this fall, students have found fewer macroinvertebrates and higher levels of fecal coliform than last spring. The differences could be due to seasonal changes, however, and they know they need more time to determine any pattern in the data.
"The kids learn about having a question, developing a hypothesis, how to collect data and analyze it, and then how to reach a conclusion and present their findings to others," said Remmen of the program. "They're participating in real science as opposed to lab science, and they're also working in the community."
Christy Peterson has two fifth-graders at River HomeLink who have taken part in the stream monitoring. Last year her son Joseph also participated in the Watershed Congress, which takes place each June as an opportunity for students to present their findings to those from other schools. Peterson said that Joseph enjoyed representing his class and sharing their data through a skit and photographs.
Her kids also like searching for macroinvertebrates in Woodin Creek.
"They found a little crayfish one time, which is pretty impressive in a creek running through the middle of town," Peterson said.