The Vermont EPSCoR Streams Project and How High Schools Are Involved

Have you ever wondered how real scientists research the impacts of our actions on stream communities?  What are the right questions to ask?  What data might one need to ask these questions?  The answers are simpler than one might imagine.  First of all, anyone with a passion for science, and the courage to work hard can be a scientist.  Secondly, no scientific questions are off limits, although there is some art in figuring out which questions can be answered with the time and resources available.  Finally, the data needed, and our ability to gather them, shape the questions we as scientists can ask.

The streams project is about being a scientist, figuring out what questions to ask, and then gathering the data needed to answer these questions.  High schools are recruited to the project from the Champlain Valley and beyond.  A dozen or more research teams, each consisting of a teacher and two or more students, meet for an intensive training week provided by professors, college students, and other scientific professionals.  During the training week, the teams learn the necessary skills to answer a range of questions relating to water quality and biological communities in Vermont Streams. 

The high school teams, college teams, and support staff record a number of physical, chemical, and biological parameters from more than twenty small Vermont streams.   All data gathered by the professors, college students, and high school teams are shared online so that the various teams can answer bigger questions than they could with just their own data set from two or three streams.  Rather than asking if a single stream draining parking lots has a less diverse insect community than a stream draining forested land, a student in Rutland or South Burlington can ask if urban streams in general are less diverse than forested streams.  Being part of this larger project allows each team to contribute to, and also access, a far larger data set than could be gathered by any single school.  For example, if one team is interested in the effects of rainfall on phosphorous output from a stream, they could measure rainfall and phosphorous output on their local streams, or they could look at several streams in the database, and correlate the data with output from the National Weather Service.

As we complete the first year of this project we look forward to the research teams and college students presenting their data at a conference in April.

Project links:   Vermont EPSCoR;  Streams Project;  Macroinvertebrate pages at Saint Michael's College

Dr. Declan McCabe

Biology Department

St Michael’s College