News - United States of America
New Hampshire GLOBE Partnership Developing Water Tent with Maple Street School Students
The New Hampshire GLOBE Partnership at the Leitzel Center at the University of New Hampshire has been working with students in grades 4 and 5 from the Maple Street School in Rochester, N.H., to develop a Water Tent, a project similar to the successful Earth Around Us Soil Tent program.
The Water Tent project is based on the Elementary GLOBE storybook Discoveries at Willow Creek in which students observe and explore a local waterway in different seasons. The students from the Maple Street School read the storybook in Fall 2022 prior to their first visit to the Cocheco River, a short walk from the school.
At the river, students measured water quality, conducting GLOBE protocols for pH, temperature and transparency, as well as speed and distance; they also collected and counted macroinvertebrates. With their art teacher, they observed the landscape surrounding the river and made sketches of natural features and macroinvertebrates. The students made predictions about what would be different at the river in the spring. Students were assisted at the river by N.H. GLOBE, UNH researchers, Cooperative Extension STEM Docents, USDA Forest Service, and Leitzel Center staff.
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The visits to the Cocheco River were repeated in April (before leaves emerged on trees and shrubs, to represent late winter/early spring) and June (to represent summer). After the last visit, the students compared their measurements, macroinvertebrate inventories, and sketches from the three seasons.
The Maple Street School students’ data and artwork will be used to create three murals showing a river ecosystem in three seasons. The murals will make up the sides of the Water Tent, which will become a traveling educational exhibit that will combine hands-on science activities with a 10-by-10-foot pop-up tent. When completed, the Water Tent will be available for schools to borrow with all the materials needed to engage in the science activities.
The tent is being developed by the New Hampshire GLOBE Partnership at the Leitzel Center at the University of New Hampshire with funding from the USDA Forest Service.
Additional photos
Photo captions (top to bottom)
- A student sketches the area surrounding the Cocheco River (fall 2022)
- Students sort and count macroinvertebrates (spring 2023)
- A chart showing data from 3 visits to the Cocheco River (summer 2023)
- Scientists and students stand on a bridge over the Cocheco River (fall 2022)
- Students sit on the bank of the Cocheco River to sketch the surrounding area (spring 2023)
- A student and scientist look for macroinvertebrates in a net (summer 2023)
Additional news stories
- The Rochester Post: Maple Street Magnet School Students Conduct Yearlong Study of Cocheco River Through Hands-on Learning Project