Students Conduct Environmental Impact Study Along Kennebec River

Teachers : Julie Wallace and Richard Gordon

The Need:
Our Academic community has been addressing the current proposal for a white water park to be developed along the Kennebec River from the Weston dam, to the local water treatment facility. The town planners need to get the information out to the rest of the community and welcomed ideas from our students on how this could be achieved. Skowhegan is changing its focus from being a town where travelers merely drive through, to a town travelers want to visit. Town planners see this water park as a way to create this destination place and in so doing revitalize our community.

Goals and Objectives:
To collect as much information about the impact that the white water park would have on the physical and environmental characteristics of the area.

3. Activities in the Unit:
Student Centered Development in Objectives
On site evaluations
History of how the river has been used
Supporting trail identification
Brain storming a plan of action to gain more information about the project
Interviews planned and began with town officials and group supporters
Mapping of species on trails
Sample collection on site
Plant identification with local botanist
Continued lessons on explorers, photosynthesis, environmental issues, scientific process
In class experiments of stressors on plants over time
Interest based “authoring projects” supporting the process
Visit from FPL Energy Company that runs the Weston Dam
Tour of Weston Dam
Continued development of a newscast format to report out information
Kayak Demonstration
Continue plan into next school year and the process continues to unfold.

Student Centered Learning:
Initially we weren’t sure what we were going to do. The students discussed a multitude of ideas relating to the physical area, and what this kind of development could mean for their future and their town. Mr. Gordon had developed a project profile in one of his college classes and we took his information along with his aerial maps and decided to go down to the river to try to imagine this new project. On site, the kids started to talk about all the different things that would have to take place in order for this to happen. They decided they needed more information regarding whether or not the state environmental agencies had given the okay to develop it. We got a copy of the proposal and sifted through the information. There was an area that explained that the state had said it did not have any threatened or endangered species along the river. The students asked how they knew what the species were, so I tried to get that information. When I actually got a person, I was told that the state looks at a map and decides based on probability. When I explained that to the students, they decided we should go and check ourselves. That started the first steps to our plan. We were going to look at the species and decide what effects this project would have on the plants in the area. They also had a lot of questions. The students would set up an interview and we would learn more about the project and its supporters. We would have more questions and new names to contact after each interview and the cycle just kept rolling.

Community Partners:
People that helped us to do this project:
1. Botanist from Colby College - Judy Stone (she also plans to come in the fall with some of her students and help the kids id more plants along the river)
2. Greg Dore - The first interview we did. He works for the town.
3. Jeff Hewitt - He worked with us identifying the town’s people that own the land along the riverbank so we could get permission to access the land and study the plants there.
4. Kirk Toth - FPL manager - he came to the school and did a presentation for the students and answered a lot of questions about the potential of the dam’s role in the project. He also allowed us a special tour inside the dam. He gave us a biologist that he works with that is answering student questions about fish and the dam. He is also allowing some of the students to be part of collecting the eels that work their way up the dam in the summer.
5. Bill Houston - Teacher of the outdoor resource program at the high school. He explained the plan of having white water rescue classes in the gorge area after the park is developed. He also used that area of the river for his classes training.
6. Gary Bailey - engineer and kayaker. He has been part of the project some its conception.
7. Josh Platt: Kennebec River Initiative - Their group will help connect the white water park plan with other groups that can help the process along.

Teaming and Collaboration:
Richard Gordon is a teacher on the Birch team. He has a social studies concentration and is an avid kayaker. He works at one of the guide companies in the summer as a kayak guide. He was able to connect the students with many of the vital people that we were able to interview.
It was a collaborative effort of taking the students out to “the field” and into the classroom and balancing the science concepts with the historical aspects of the river. The students needed to understand what the river had been to the communities before, so they could see the impact of the plan ahead. Hemlock students were brought into the Cedar science class for the science lessons and it doubled as the place to teach the social studies lessons as well.
The project would not have been successful without the collaborative efforts of both teachers.
Technology Integration and Interactive Communication:
Students used video cameras and a newscast environment for reporting out their information on the River Project. The decided they wanted to make a web site for the community to see what the project was about since most of the students parents didn’t even know about it. They decided that was the best thing they could contribute back to the people. As they continued the students became so interested in the video component that we started to use it as an assessment tool and continue to do so now. We plan to use “the news” as a way to continue to learn science in the classroom.

Assessment:

10. How does this benefit the community?
The intent was to provide the community one place that they could collect a lot of information on the project, such as, who is involved and what types of implications to their community this project with have.

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