Collaborative Project: Using GIS with real-time water quality assessment to guide scientific inquiry and learning in a community college environmental studies program

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A course in Aquatic Environmental Science is being developed at Northwest Florida State College (NWFSC), a two year college. The cornerstone of the course is a series of field sampling activities using a combination of field analytical instruments and web-enabled GIS products to assess, in real-time, spatial and temporal variability of biogeochemical parameters in a local estuary. Teams of students are collecting data using handheld multimeters to perform field analyses for physical parameters (temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen) and separate portable colorimeters to measure biogeochemical parameters (nitrate, ammonium, and phosphate). Students are using field laptop PCs to upload water quality data (via a wireless network card) to a GIS webserver, maintained at a nearby four-year university, the University of West Florida (UWF). The data from all sampling teams are compiled by the GIS server and used to generate GIS layers that graphically depict the spatial variability of water quality parameters using the entire data set. While still in the field, these GIS layers can be immediately accessed by students and instructors to obtain a whole basin view of spatial variation in water quality parameters. These summary results are used to generate and test field hypotheses or to facilitate in-the-field comparison with historical data collected during previous semesters and stored on the field laptop. The Aquatic Environmental Science course is a component of Physical Sciences in the Science Department at NWFSC. The target audience for this course includes students enrolled in an AA program and students enrolled in the Middle School Science Teacher Program for pre-service teachers. The major field sampling component of the course is designed to meet a number of goals related to both STEM disciplines and technical workforce training by creating an experiential learning activity based on field data collection. Specifically, the new course has field and classroom components that provide students with the opportunity to use a variety of field technical equipment within the context of an ecological assessment. The goal of this combination is to simultaneously address STEM learning and technical aptitude within a field-based project. The proposed field activities also are being used as an articulation opportunity to introduce two-year college students at NWFSC to GIS technology and environmental sciences. By collaborating with a UWF there are opportunities for recruiting NWFSC students into baccalaureate and graduate programs. The field activities also are being integrated into a workshop for regional in-service high school science teachers.