By Keighla Schmidt, Staff Writer

Memories of science classes often include long lectures, technical terms and some time spent in a lab wearing protective goggles.

Kerry Hoeschen, a science teacher at Eagle Ridge Junior High School, hopes a recent project will change that perception by getting students out of the classroom and using science skills in a live setting.

Hoeschen and fellow science teacher Kristin Block brought their students outside to nearby Sunset Pond to gather data on the water in the pond. The project extended over two days.  Some students took to the water and foraged the pond in a canoe or kayak, while others stayed on shore.

“I think this is something that the kids will remember,” Hoeschen said. “I think they’ll walk away from this with fond memories.”

Dan Powers and Bo Hellquist took a canoe in the water to gather various data. Using a handheld device, called the Xplorer GLX, the two checked the depth of the pond and the temperatures of the water to create a comprehensive map.Checking water samples: Students
worked in groups gathering data
around Sunset Pond. (From Left) Carli
Coleman, Jessa Yoerg, Krista Lorang
and Tressa Anderson, ninth graders at
Eagle Ridge Junior High School, tried
to determine information about the
water samples collected from the pond.

They also used the handheld devices with various attachments to check water clarity, pH levels, ammonia content and other chemical components.

“I was surprised at how shallow it was,” Powers said. “It was about two to three feet deep everywhere.”

Their half-hour trek around the pond behind the junior high school was done in the rain. The two noted they thought there was a lot of garbage and mud in the pond.

Opting to stay ashore, Jessa Yoerg and Tressa Anderson worked with a couple other girls and gathered samples around the edges of the pond. They checked some of the same data as the boys did in the canoe, but hope to compare the data to see if levels differ between the shore and the center.

The girls said they were surprised to see how the water changed colors when different tablets were dropped in the samples.

Hoeschen’s students will go back in the spring to collect similar data and compare and contrast the levels to see if the surrounding residential area has an impact on the pond.

The activity was possible because of a $5,000 grant Hoeschen received from the National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF). An additional $1,000 from the school’s Site Council also funded the activity.

With the money, Hoeschen purchased four Xplorer GLXes, four sensor attachments, pond water quality kits and identification guides. The GLX units have GPS capabilities and can also work as a portable lab.

“I had one student tell me they feel like a real scientist,” Block said. “Most liked using the technology. They don’t get to use that sort of technology very often, so when they do, they love it.”

When Hoeschen authored the proposal to NEEF, one of reasons he wanted the grant was to increase class participation. “It will engage the students and make their education relevant,” he wrote in the proposal.

He also declared the purpose of the capstone course is “to make real-world observations, measurements and conduct independent investigations of Sunset Pond, a large wetland near the school,” according to the proposal.

Ninth-grade science serves as a capstone course, covering what students learned in seventh-grade life science and eighth-grade physical science.

“The class is by nature environmental,” Hoeschen said. “I wanted to give them the chance to do environmental things and to be connected to it.”

 Keighla Schmidt can be reached at kschmidt@swpub.com.