First of all I would like to say I'm sorry for not keeping updated with this project. But, here goes anyways, at Silverado High School we have a very unique class called Global Lab which is designed, in a nutshell, to establish enviornmental awareness through community sponsors, community partnerships and global networks. We do work with the EPA, Desert Research Institute, and Montgomery Watson Engineering just to name a few. One of the areas of study is water quality. In the classroom we have eight aquariums that we actively monitor and we test water from many surrounding places including two local washes, Lake Mead, our current public water source, Mono Lake, and various springs in Red Rock Canyon. For this project we submitted data from Lake Mead.
Here are two other students opinions on the project: Our group came across the water sampling project late in the year. Currently we are building a stream bed aquarium to study tadpoles and flatworms from a local wash. Next year we hope toget started sooner and get more of our class involved, By doing this we can submit more than one series of results, and possibly include more of our sites. Laura Linton Our coliform project is slowly coming up on its feet. We did do a qaulitative test for coliform on a sample from the mouth of the Las Vegas Wash at Lake Mead. The reason for this spot is because the sewage treatment plant runoff empties into the wash. We did find traces of coliform, but hopefully by the end of this school year we will have our quantitative tests functioning proprely so we can give more thorough results. Hanah Richardson Additionally, we are currently writing a major grant that will involve National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Southern Nevada Water Authority and our school district (Clark County Schools, NV) that will result in the creation of a permanent water sampling station located in Lake Mead that will transmit data on a real time basis to our classroom. Silverado students will manage a "water analysis" project for other schools within our school district. Our focus is on water quality and we are elated to be involved in this global sampling project. (D.M. Curry, Teacher)
To learn more about our class check out our website at www.geocities.com/globalab/home.html
Thanks, Colby Temple, 12