Student Research Reports

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Hawkins High School has gathered a number of GLOBE measurements from 2010 to the present. The students began working on a project involving soil contaminants that quickly evolved into a much larger endeavor. Because water will reveal more about pollution in our natural environment, the students shifted their topic of investigation over to the health of local water bodies. By 2013, the students were communicating with India and Croatia over their concerns of water quality. The five young scientists began testing four nearby water sources--the school pond, a pool and riffle portion of a neighboring stream, and the local lake--and obtained information to be shared across the globe. Using GLOBE hydrology protocols on conductivity, dissolved oxygen, nitrates, pH, turbidity, water temperature, and macroinvertebrates, the Hawkins' students investigated their local water quality and submitted their data to the GLOBE database. All results from the Hawkins' sample sites showed very low pollution levels in the four different environments; however, further research is being conducted in the other countries for comparative analysis.