Stream studies are elementary for Cheyenne Creek Conservation Club
By David Eick, Canon Elementary School teacher and Cheyenne Creek Conservation Club advisor
Over the past 12 years, two dozen students from Canon Elementary have volunteered their time and energy to monitor and report to Colorado River Watch about Cheyenne Creek, which runs behind their school. These fifth and sixth graders make up the Cheyenne Creek Conservation Club.
They have also taken their activities a step further, partnering with the city of Colorado Springs to stencil storm drains each spring and demonstrate their monthly scientific efforts to local community members at a nearby park and nature center.
In April, the club stenciled storm drains in and along the Cheyenne Creek and Bear Creek watersheds in southwest Colorado Springs. The students spent a Saturday morning painting “Dump No Waste, Drains to Stream” near more than 40 drains.
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| Photo provided by David Eick |
Then, on the first Saturday in June, club members demonstrated their methods to the local community. They took their equipment and traveled upstream about a mile to the Starsmore Discovery Center where they collected and analyzed water samples as usual – but this time with an audience asking questions.
Students hope all this effort raises awareness of nonpoint source pollution, a common threat to creeks in any suburban area like the one in which they live.
During the school year and into the summer, the club meets to gather water samples and analyze them, following scientific methods approved by the Colorado Division of Wildlife and River Watch, which provides most of the equipment and chemicals to do the water sampling and testing.
Small grants keep the students supplied with other items such as waders, goggles, notebooks, team shirts that say “Keepers of the Creek,” extra equipment and an occasional pizza party to celebrate their continued success.
The students analyze the water for percentage of dissolved oxygen, hardness, alkalinity and pH, as well as record the temperature and flow each month. Occasionally, the group collects nutrient samples and macroinvertibrates, or “bugs.” Additional samples are collected and sent to the River Watch office for further analysis.
After 12 years of collecting samples, the group just collected and reported for the one hundred fiftieth time to River Watch. It’s an exciting accomplishment for students to collect real scientific data that can be used by other scientists to make determinations about our creek and the surrounding watershed. The students take their role in the club very seriously.
Next year will be one of transition for the program because The Cheyenne Mountain School District plans to close Canon Elementary School at the end of the next school year.
Although the club’s future is uncertain, students in the program are sure they made a difference in their community and the local habitat. Many say they will continue to pursue science classes in secondary education, and several past club members have gone on to major in biological sciences in college.
For information about River Watch, which is a cooperative effort between the Colorado Watershed Network and the Colorado Division of Wildlife, visit www.wildlife.state.co.us/riverwatch.Next Story>>