By: Tracy D'Augustino, MSU Extension Science Educator
and Mark Meyer, Staff Editor
The Guide - June 2015
Students across Northeast Michigan have been spending time outside the classroom this spring while participating in place-based education projects, and collecting water quality data to be shared across the region through National Geographic's Great Lakes FieldScope website (www.GreatLakes.FieldScope.org). The students are collecting both biotic (living) and abiotic (nonliving) data incorporating inquiry and experiential learning through partnerships developed within the Northeast Michigan Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative (NE MI GLSI).
The LaMotte Pond Water Tour, a testing kit geared for grades 4-8, is the tool of choice for testing abiotic parameters including ammonia, nitrates, dissolved oxygen and pH levels. NE MI GLSI partners help students determine the possible sources of the four abiotic physical parameters, and ask them to make careful observations of land uses around the water as well as upstream...