Stroud Educators at Work Creating Citizen Scientists: A Collaboration with Cabrini College

With a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Cabrini College and the Stroud™ Water Research Center are about to embark upon an innovative educational program to develop curricula with the ultimate goal of instilling in students the capacity and the aspiration to work as “citizen scientists” in their local watersheds and to disseminate the knowledge they gain to their peers and the community at large.

THE WATERSHED CITIZENSHIP LEARNING COMMUNITY PROJECT
Designed for non-science majors, the two-part program will combine science with psychology and “applied democracy” — the empowering of citizens to make scientifically informed decisions that will affect their communities. Watershed science and watershed citizenship will be the themes around which Stroud educators and Cabrini College biology and psychology faculty members will create a new interdisciplinary and experiential learning program — one that will take their students into the Valley Creek watershed and the communities within it.

“We hope to use this new curriculum to engage students in the real-world issues of water quality and conservation, while also providing them with the scientific foundation and problem solving skills that will enable them to take action,” said Susan Gill, Stroud director of education. An added benefit is that the planned fieldwork will also bring tangible benefits to the communities of Valley Creek.

FOCUS ON VALLEY CREEK WATERSHED & THE CRABBY CREEK RESTORATION
The Valley Creek watershed, which includes Radnor, Pennsylvania, the home of Cabrini College, has been subjected to extensive new development over the last two decades. “This is an important watershed and it developed very rapidly, without a coordinated storm water management program,” said Stroud senior research scientist, John Jackson.

As in other urban watersheds, its rapid population growth and development have increased the impervious surface area and contributed to increased flooding in the area — yet many residents still do not truly understand the impact of land use changes on stormwater runoff, flooding or water quality.

“The problem is that most residents we’ve surveyed, while conservation-oriented, are not aware of the storm runoff problem or the damage it has caused in their community,” says Dr. Missy Terlecki, who helped Cabrini students survey hundreds of residents of Crabby Creek in the Valley Creek watershed in preparation for this program, and who will co-teach the Watershed Citizenship course at Cabrini in the fall. “The results of the survey provided critical inputs that have helped us determine how we should move forward and shape this program.” Survey results demonstrate a real education problem and also a desire by community members to participate in the Crabby Creek Restoration Project. This curriculum provides a great platform to address both of these issues while providing students with a meaningful educational experience.

Collaboration with the Valley Creek Restoration Partnership will enable the students to engage directly with the community, and contribute to the restoration of the watershed — something Terlecki says will also give them the confidence and interest to take their stewardship skills with them wherever they live after graduation.

TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM
Cabrini College’s Watershed Ecology class, which will be taught jointly by Dr. David Dunbar and Dr. Caroline Nielsen, will give students the core concepts of watershed ecology and will include the implementation of basic water assessment techniques — from chemistry to macroinvertebrate monitoring. “But, what’s really powerful and exciting about the course,” says Dunbar “is the ability of our non-science students to perform state-of-the-art biology experiments — including DNA bar coding studies on the macroinvertebrates of Crabby Creek.” The idea of introducing this technology is not just to get accurate and comprehensive data, but to excite and inspire students with tools to which they wouldn’t normally get access.

Studies of Crabby Creek previously performed by a team of Stroud scientists led by senior research scientist John Jackson will provide the baseline from which Dunbar’s students will compare their results and assess water quality.

A WIN-WIN SITUATION
Terlecki reports that the benefits of this kind of experiential learning are huge. “Seeing is believing,” she says. “There’s a much higher level of understanding when people experience something, rather than just read about it in a book.” Based on their initial experiences, students have underscored both how much they appreciate working with community members and their commitment to practicing certain conservancy behaviors as a result of this program.

“We think it’s a win-win situation for everyone involved,” says Dunbar. “If we’re successful, we’ll be sending our graduates out into the world as environmental advocates, with the confidence to believe they can make a difference — and the skills to do something about it.”

Kristen Travers, Stroud education programs manager and a key player in the formulation and evaluation of the course, put it this way. “This collaboration gives us the opportunity to simultaneously share the science of Stroud and to help mold watershed stewards. That’s definitely a win-win.”

Links:

For information on the Stroud Water Research Center’s Education programs go to:
http://www.stroudcenter.org/education/index.htm

To see Stroud Water Research Center data from sampling sites in the southwest Schuylkill Basin, including Crabby Creek, go to:
http://www.stroudcenter.org/schuylkill/sites/site022.htm

For more information on the NSF grant and Cabrini College, go to:
http://www.cabrini.edu/default.aspx?pageid=1902

View bios of Cabrini College faculty, David Dunbar and Melissa Terlecki at:
http://www.cabrini.edu/default.aspx?pageid=1742 and http://www.cabrini.edu/default.aspx?pageid=1705

For information on Valley Creek Restoration Project go to:
http://dsf.chesco.org/conservation/lib/conservation/pdf/
crabby_creek_restoration_project.pdf

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