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Click on these links for information
on specific grade level materials and supplies:
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Elementary Supplies and Materials
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Many elementary students use qualitative test kits such as the GREEN Low Cost Water Quality Monitoring Kits by LaMotte. |
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Elementary students have good success using the Green Low Cost Water Monitoring Kit from LaMotte Company which allows students to test for pH, dissolved oxygen, biological oxygen demand, temperature, turbidity, nitrate, phosphate, and fecal coliform. Students can also study macroinvertebrates by placing leaf packs in the creek and retrieving them to analyze which macros have colonized the pack. The Leaf Pack Stream Ecology Kit from the LaMotte Company and also a kick net to collect the macros are excellent tools for elementary students.
Students can record information when in the field in Rite in the Rain field books, or any type of field journal that is purchased or put together in the classroom. Rite-in-the-Rain books may be ordered from any scientific supply catalog and are worth the expense if you have the rainy weather typical of the Northwest. If you do not use these, consider using large ziploc bags for the students to put their field journals in.
Getting Started The following items would be basic materials to help you get a water quality program going at the elementary level.
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GREEN Low-Cost Water Quality Monitoring Kits - one kit per small group (see the Lamotte website or catalog) | ||
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Streamkeepers
Field Guide By Thomas B. Murdoch and
Martha Cheo with Kate O'Laughlin Excellent background to the teacher who is getting started |
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GREEN Water Monitoring Kit - allows students to test 9 parameters; enough for 100 tests (44 tests for fecal coliform); see the Lamotte website or catalog |
Rite in the Rain books - one per small group, or one per student if possible; or you can cheaply create handmade journals, having the students keep them in ziplock bags when out on a field trip
Armored thermometers: We find these easier to use than the thermometer "strips" supplied in the kit, and they last a long time. Tie a string to the looped end for easy access into and out of the water. Available from LaMotte.
Clipboards for use on field trips, especially if the kids are journaling, drawing, or doing leaf rubbings, etc
Optional: kick nets for macro collection, garden-type knee pads for use in the field if kids are to sit and journal, draw, do leaf rubbings, reflect, etc.
Macroinvertebrate Studies Support Materials:
Leaf Pack Experiments Stream Ecology Kit for macroinvertebrate studies, from Lamotte Company - one per class; if you can, try to buy extra sets of the laminated macroinvertebrate flashcards - they are excellent and if each small group has their own, this works best
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Stream Ecology Made Elementary - The exciting classroom adventure that introduces the connection between the stream and the macroinvertebrates that live there. |
Literature Connection Kids will learn a lot about water, water quality, and the importance of the environment by reading any or all of the following books, or listening to you read to them.
A Drop Around the World by Barbara McKinney (available from Dawn Publications)
Water Dance by Thomas Locker (available from Dawn Publications)
Follow the Water from Brook to Ocean by Arthur Dorros (Amazon.com)
What Makes it Rain? The Story of a Raindrop by Keith Brandt and illustrated by Yoshi Miyake (Amazon.com)
The Water's Journey, written and illustrated by Eleonore Schmid (Amazon.com)
"Swimmer - The Journey of an Alaskan Salmon" by Shelley Gill, illustrated by Shannon Cartwright. (Amazon.com)
Salmon Stream Carol Reed-Jones (available from Dawn Publications)
If you are unable to get your students out in the field, consider the Watershed Tour by Lamotte Company. The Tour is a complete package of activities, non-hazardous chemicals, and support materials geared toward students in grades 4-8 and designed for teachers who are unable to visit a stream with their students. Students will learn about stream ecology, water quality issues, and their own connection to a watershed.
The following websites will give information on kits and equipment used in elementary stream studies:
LaMotte Company http://www.lamotte.com
Project GREEN http://www.earthforce.org/green/
Adopt-a-Stream Foundation http://www.streamkeeper.org/
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Middle School Supplies and Materials
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Use this website to get activities, resources and background information by clicking on "curriculum" at the top of the page and going from there. Middle school students have found good success and understanding using Project Green's Low Cost Water Monitoring Kits, available from Lamotte Company, which test for pH, dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, temperature, turbidity, nitrate, phosphate, and coliform bacteria. These tests are great for the beginning of stream experiences when students are just learning about the different testing parameters. The kits are mainly give qualitative results. Later in the school year, students can use more sophisticated tests which give more quantitative and accurate results (see below). |  |
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Getting Started The following items would be basic materials to help you get a water quality program going at the elementary level. The Streamkeeper's Guide gives an excellent background to teachers just starting in water quality studies with their students. The Field Manual for Water Quality Monitoring is an excellent book for a clearer understanding of how monitoring should be done.
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Field Manual for Water Quality Monitoring By Mitchell and Stapp For teacher background and advanced studies.
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By Thomas B. Murdoch and Martha Cheo with Kate O'Laughlin Excellent background to the teacher who is getting started
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For mainly qualitative results: GREEN Low-Cost Water Quality Monitoring Kits - one kit per small group or use the individual tests in the GREEN Water Monitoring Kit (see elementary section above or the Lamotte website) |
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For more quantitative and more accurate results: Individual testing kits on each parameter, or colorimeter for multiple parameter testing; Pocket testers, for pH, conductivity, etc; see Lamotte Company |
Rite in the Rain books - one per small group, or one per student if possible; or you can cheaply create handmade journals, having the students keep them in ziplock bags when out on a field trip
Clipboards to write on if you are having your students do journaling, drawing, leaf rubbings, etc.
Armored thermometers: We find these easier to use than the thermometer "strips" supplied in the kit, and they last a long time. Tie a string to the looped end for easy access into and out of the water. Available from LaMotte.
Optional: kick nets for macro collection
Macroinvertebrate Studies Support Materials:
Leaf Pack Experiments Stream Ecology Kit for macroinvertebrate studies, from Lamotte Company - one per class; if you can, try to buy extra sets of the laminated macroinvertebrate flashcards - they are excellent and if each small group has their own, this works best
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A Guide to Common Freshwater Invertebrates by J. Reese Voshell is an excellent guide to macros for middle and high school students. Order from Amazon.com or McDonald & Woodward Publishing Company (www.mwpubco.com) |
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Stream Ecology Made Elementary - The exciting classroom adventure that introduces the connection between the stream and the macroinvertebrates that live there. |
Literature Connection Kids will learn a lot about water, water quality, and the importance of the environment by reading these books, or listening to you read them. If your students are mentoring younger students, the older kids can read these to the younger ones.:
Salmon Nation: People and Fish at the Edge by Elizabeth Woody (amazon.com)
A Drop of Water: A Book of Science and Wonder by Walter Wick (amazon.com)
The Drop in My Drink: The Story of Water on Our Planet by Meredith Hooper, et al, (amazon.com)
Guide to Pacific Northwest Aquatic Invertebrates. An excellent handbook with colored classification pictures of common macroinvertebrates from Oregon Trout: http://www.ortrout.org (click on education, scroll down to bottom of page)
Swimmer - The Journey of an Alaskan Salmon by Shelley Gill, illustrated by Shannon Cartwright. ((available from Dawn Publications))
Salmon Stream Carol Reed-Jones (available from Dawn Publications)
The following websites will give information on kits and equipment used in stream studies:
LaMotte Company http://www.lamotte.com
Project GREEN http://www.earthforce.org/green/
Adopt-a-Stream Foundation http://www.streamkeeper.org/
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| Procedures
Data Entry Data Analysis Curriculum Materials Water Quality Home How to Do Research |
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High School Materials and Supplies
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High school students do testing that is much more quantitative and precise, using analytical tools. |
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| Getting Started The following items would be basic materials to help you get a water quality program going at the high school level.
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Literature Connection:
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LaMotte Company http://www.lamotte.com
Project GREEN http://www.earthforce.org/green/
Adopt-a-Stream Foundation http://www.streamkeeper.org/
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Back to Water Quality Page
Questions concerning the Water Quality Project of the
Washington Virtual Classroom can be directed to Sherry Schaaf at sschaaf@esd114.wednet.edu
Copyright 2004
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