Project Goals l GET WET! Flyer

Objectives

The need: There is a growing concern that many communities will not have the water resources to sustain the demands of society.
Drinking water across the United States is being stressed. In rural areas where private wells are common, periodic testing of water
quality is not happening. Towns need to manage their natural resources wisely, and information is needed to understand the local effects that give rise to a change in water quantity or quality.

The solution: GET WET! works with local K-12 school students who sample and analyze their own well water as a class project.
This student-scientist project affords an opportunity to increase local participation and understanding of regional issues through a
teacher-directed public summary of their research results. GET WET! offers opportunities to educators, students, local governments, and the general public to learn about their local natural history and allows them to draw the connection between land use and water quality. The information gathered becomes part of a data repository by establishing a long-term town-centered monitoring program that can be used by the community to formulate productive choices in planning, management, and development. Student data are also added to a growing database managed on a GIS program (i.e., Google Earth) and the University of Maine’s database of groundwater quality data that is housed on PEARL (www.pearl.maine.edu). A web site is being developed at the Mitchell Center to link involved communities and house data as well as resources for teachers, students, and future facilitators. In New York’s Orange County (OC), the OC Water Authority is developing a web site to house interactive GIS maps that include all parameters tested. The information recorded can be accessed and shared with other schools throughout the country.

Program Objectives:

1. Create an interdisciplinary study focusing on natural resources, water, and development to increase periodic monitoring of
private wells through public education.

2. Proactively recognize and remediate geographic areas of poor public health through the identification of land-use activities
that affect water quantity/quality and determine if there is a need for a community water supply.

3. Effect state recommendations of safe levels and standards that are presently motivated by the mortgage investment
companies.

4. Populate a database that identifies important regional variables, non-specific indicators, and the diverse stressors that are of a
national concern.

Program Application:

Phase I: A full day of training for participating educators and future GET WET! training facilitators which includes: Excel; sampling and laboratory procedures; Google Earth; and power point. Teachers will be given a CD to take home of useful PowerPoints and a curriculum book that contains geologic explanations of what groundwater is and how it is formed in their particular area. The CD also includes specific directives for each technology used with hands-on activities, lists of vocabulary words, and homework lessons that apply to the parameters of each test performed in the classroom with the students well water samples. This information will also be made available electronically on a website where teachers throughout the country can communicate and further readings can be made available.

Phase II: Employ all grades and educators in the involvement of chemistry, geology, geodesy, mapping, GIS, statistics, computer
programs, and environmental studies. Students should develop: field sampling techniques; laboratory skills; comprehension in
terminology; a knowledge of local land-use effects on water quality; and an understanding of water chemistry testing (nitrates,
alkalinity, chloride, pH, salinity, conductivity, and turbidity). Classroom testing with suitable test kits (e.g. Hach) are backed up by a10% split analysis in the Environmental Chemistry Lab for Quality Assurance & Control. This phase includes community
professionals and laymen, parents, undergraduate science majors, and pre-service teachers as classroom volunteers.

Phase III: Students manage information in Excel and Google Earth. Names, addresses, and results will be organized in an Excel
spread sheet. Students will also create a map of each study site by placing the chemical results for their wells at the correct latitude and longitude via Google Earth. Students will gain competence in: Excel; Word; a GIS program; and internet research capabilities. Students should demonstrate mapping abilities through both interpolation of hard copy topographic maps, interpretation of computerbased topographic maps, and the ability to recognize and identify specific locations by latitude and longitude on topographic maps.

Phase IV: Students prepare a power point presentation of statistics and charts they have produced to graphically represent findings. Results are to be presented at a meeting for local government agencies and the general public to promote an understanding why conservation and commitment to a healthy environment takes an entire community.

Phase V: A national web site will be created to manage a comprehensive database of all information the students record. Prepared facilitators will continue to recruit and train teachers, community members, and students in all areas of need.