Finishing Up at Wickiup

It has been an amazing summer experience out here at Wickiup Outdoor Learning Center.  We have done everything from water testing to helping kids learn how to fish.  We’ve cut cattails, and helped teach kids about archaeology.  We’ve blazed trails in our hikes through the lands surrounding the learning center, and we’ve taken water samples from a location on the Cedar River that sits almost directly across from the nuclear power plant.  We’ve been scorched by searing heat and tried to avoid, frankly, outdoor work in triple digit temperatures.  We’ve worked to develop an IOWATER learning system for younger kids, something we hope the naturalists here at Wickiup might be able to incorporate into their upcoming watershed education programs.  We’ve also established two water-testing sites that are within easy walking distance form our respective schools, opening up the possibility of continued testing into the school year.

A look at the Cedar River and some of our Test Sites on Google Earth

This externship experience has meant a great deal to me.  It has allowed me to solidify professional relationships with the naturalists at Wickiup Outdoor Learning Center, who represent together an invaluable resource for science content knowledge and also for potential connections to other environmental-oriented groups in the area, including the DNR.  The naturalists’ knowledge base provides a really interesting local context to anything I might teach in biology or environmental science.  How many science textbooks highlight issues specifically facing Iowa’s waterways and water bodies, or specifically the biota that we find in this great state.  There may be some at the college level, but at the basic level there are few or none.  The naturalists, with their knowledge, have provided me with the power to use and develop local examples for the concepts that are addressed in the courses I teach.  What is the water cycle?  If looked at from a purely abstract viewpoint, it is a little dull.  However, if instead I talk about a glass of water that comes out of a Cedar Rapids faucet, and follow that through the water cycle, in first a local and then a global sense, the water cycle becomes a much more relevant topic to the students who drink the water in Cedar Rapids.

Nitrate and Nitrite Testing

It’s hard to overstate the IOWATER testing techniques we’ve mastered during the externship program this summer.  I started the summer with only a very vague idea of what it takes to test water in Iowa, and how water testing is accomplished.  I’ve always enjoyed working and playing in and near the water, but really didn’t understand the methodology behind water testing.  Now, I feel like I have a good command over the water testing methods, and by cataloguing the experiences, in excel sheets, online Google forms, and with pictures, I’m confident in my ability to bring this exciting science-investigation opportunity to my students at Cedar Rapids Washington High School.

This summary blog post would not be complete without lauding the work and interesting experience that both of my teacher colleagues have brought to the externship experience this summer.  Both Kathy and Angie have been amazing partners in our journey to become better STEM teachers.  Since both have more teaching experience than I, it’s been an incredible perk of the program to hear how they approach issues of classroom management, grading, and a variety of other issues.  We have had, during the summer, a level of collaboration that only wish time allowed during the school year. 

My fellow externs and I

This being my second year, it’s also my last, and I’m going to miss participating in this program.  I know that the lessons I’ve learned and professional relationships that I’ve developed will continue to be valuable for years to come.

A member of the woodland culture and I share a moment, looking off into the distance.