Contact: Vince Trimboli
384-3927/vtrimboli@cityofboise.org
(BOISE) – Some Boise High School and Riverstone International School students are literally getting their hands wet to determine if human activities have a measurable impact on water quality in the Boise foothills.
WHAT: High School Water Quality Field Study
WHEN: Wednesday, May 13th
WHERE: 10:30 a.m. (Meet Boise High students at Foothills Learning Center off 8th Street extension)
12:30 p.m. (Meet Riverstone students at Cottonwood Creek Ponds off Reserve Street/Mountain Cover Rd.)
CONTACT: Day of event, Toni Smith, 275-9785(c)
The project provides a unique opportunity for students to develop their own scientific research question about a local issue, and then test their hypothesis in the field. The data collected by the students this spring and in future projects may be used in long-term analysis of foothills water quality.
The students are led by Boise State graduate student Toni Smith. A Master of Science candidate, Smith is National Science Foundation (NSF) GK-12 Fellow at Boise State. The GK-12 program funds the work of graduate students at local science and environmental education. Smith has been assigned to the Boise WaterShed the past eight months where she teaches and helps develop science education programs.
“The students are meeting, interacting with, and learning from the work of practicing scientists in the natural environment,” said Dr. Karen Viskupic, the Boise State geoscientist who directs the NSF GK-12 project. “At the same time, Boise State graduate students are learning the valuable and necessary skill of communicating their work to a non-scientific audience.”
The NSF Grant places fellows at the City-operated Boise WaterShed Environmental Education Center and Foothills Learning Center, along with the Discovery Center of Idaho. The $2.3 million grant is the largest NSF grant ever awarded to Boise State University, and will place 34 graduate students in contact with K-12 students and teachers over the next 5 years.