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Activities

Cascades to Coast GK-12 Field Activities

Collecting environmental data is a major feature of Cascades-to-Coast curriculum.  GK-12 Fellows and teachers have desigend the following field investigations for their students:

-Measuring air quality

-Comparing infiltration rates and soil properties across the region

-Comparing stream characteristics and water chemistry across the region 

-Using insects to bioassess streams across the region

-Investigating methods for removing invasive plants in wetlands

-Small mammal tracking

Middle school students from Vestal K-8 school build passive samplers for air pollution (NOx) and place along a busy road in front of their school and behind the school away from traffic.
      
Equipment used to build passive NOx samplers. Students building samplers. Students placing samplers in front of the school near a busy road.

7th grade students at Mt. Tabor Middle School investigate soil permeability, infiltration and plant communities across the region and compare to bioswales they installed on the school grounds.
     
Weighing soil to determine bulk density. Soil Sample from the Coast Range ecoregion. Students measuring soil infiltration rates in the Coast Range.
     
     
     

Franklin High School students condcut a stream bioassessment at Balch Creek and compare water quality values to Biology in a Bottle experiment.
     
Biology in a Bottle Experiment.  Measuring water chemistry. Collecting stream insects and water quality at Balch Creek.

Gresham High School 9th grade students measure water quality and stream channel characteristics of of an urbanized creek (Johnson Creek) and compare to a natural stream in the Cascades.
 
Students measure stream channel width, depth and velocity to calculate the flow of Johnson Creek. Measuring the dissolved oxygen level of Johnson Creek  

Students at Glencoe High School in Hillsboro clear invasive Reed Canary Grass from a wetland on school grounds and conduct an experiment to determine most effective plant spacing to restablish native Willows.
Wetland Cleared of invasive Reed Canary Grass. Students plant native willows through landscape fabric. Willow start with protection against mammal feeding and Nutria damage.

6th grade students at Lent Middle School in Portland visit Eagle Creek in the Cascades range to measure water quality, collect Macroinvertebrates, and idenfity native plants.  Students will compare data across ecoregions.  
Measuring stream Nitrate. Collecting and counting aquatic insects. Identifying native plants.

Students at Evergreen Middle School in Hillsboro design structures for tracking mammals in the field near their school.
      
Students work on a design challenge to design and build a small mammal tracking structure. Winning design. Field mice tracks from a natural area near the school.