Welcome to the Project Discussion Area!

Please use this area to write and post your Letters of Introduction, to share any questions or comments you may have about data in the database or about the project, and to submit your Final Reports. If you would like to share the URL (web address) of your school home page with
other participants, please include it when you post your Letter of Introduction.

If you happen to experience any difficulty submitting information to the Discussion Area or submitting your data in the Project Data Area, email the information to me and I will submit it on your behalf.

In case you ever have difficulty accessing the project web site, you can try the mirror site:

http://www.k12science2.org/curriculum/waterproj/

You may want to write down this information for future reference. Have fun with the project!

Liesl Hotaling
Project Leader
 

Topic: Letter of Introduction
Conf: Letters of Introduction
From: Zarina Ibrahim
Date: Wednesday, April 04, 2001
 

LETTER OF INTRODUCTION FROM GEORGETOWN AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL
SCHOOL,Georgetown,Guyana,March 2001.

The Georgetown American School is a private school serving a diverse ethnic,cultural and religious population.  We are located in Georgetown, the capital of the Cooperative Republic.  The elevation of the Georgetown American School is 5 feet below sea level.  Our coordinates are between 1 and 9 degrees north latitude and 57 and 61 degrees west longitude.

The name Guiana conjours images of the legendary "El Dorado", the "Wild Coast" of the Americas and the Green Mansions of luxuriant tropical rainforests.  The word itself means "LAND OF MANY WATERS" and the modern state of Guyana takes its names from this ancient Amerindian expression.

The Cooperative Republic of Guyana is located on the northern coast of South America, it lies between Suriname to the east, Brazil to the south, Venezuela to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the north, and has 2462 kilometers of land boundaries with its neighbours and a coastline of 459 kilometers.  It is the only English speaking country on the continent.  Since 1831, it was known as British Guiana, but on becoming independent in 1966, it adopted the name Guyana.

Guyana has total area of 214'970 sq. kilometers and a population of approximately 850'000.  Our country has a history of being ruled by the panish, Dutch, French and British.  Because of this we have a diverse ethnic population (land of six people).  Its topography is varied and is divided into four ecological zones.

Guyana is divided into 3 counties and there are 3 main rivers that separate these counties.  Our major exports are gold, rice, sugar, bauxite, diamonds, fish and fruits.

Guyana has a lot of tourist attractions for example: St.George's Cathedral (the largest wooden building in the world), the Kaiteur Falls (the tallest single drop waterfall in the world), the Demerara Harbour Bridge (the largest floating bridge in the world).

Our country is known internationally as "Jim Jones Country" and most recently as "SixHead Lewis Country".

The Georgetown American School has a population of eighty five students (K-12).  This is the only school in Guyana that follow an American Curriculum. Our school is accredited by Southern Association of Colleges and School.

We the students of Grades 9-10 are proud and excited to be part of this Water Sampling Project.
 

Topic: Letter of Introduction
Conf: Letters of Introduction
From: Chris Wilson
Date: Thursday, May 10, 2001

April 22, 2001

Greetings from China!!
Our school is the International school of Beijing (ISB). It is an American standard school. It is made up of 1150 student from around 50 countries. We range from Pre-Kindergarten all the way up to 12th grade. The school started life as a school for the english speaking countries of USA, Great Britain, Canada, Austrailia and New Zealand and was first meant for the children of the Embassy personal. Now most of the students are children of buisness
people. The school is divided into three sections: Satellite School, Elementary School, Middle School and High School. The Satellite School contains grades Pre-K to 2.  The Elementary School is grades 3 to 5. The Middle School is grades 6 to 8 and High School is grades 9 to 12. Each section of the school has an area of the school mostly to itself. We do not have to wear uniforms, and next year we will be moving to a newer, bigger (MUCH bigger) campus. It will be one of the best in Asia!! Our web site is  http://www.isb.bj.edu.cn check it out!!

ISB is located on the grounds of the Lido Compound in Beijing. Next year our new campus will be located in Shunyi County, about 16 kilometers to the NE of here. Our coordinates are 40 N by 116 E.

China is the nation with the largent population in the world today, our city of Beijing has a population of over 10 million. China's total population is 1.26 billion in the most up-to-date count. It is quite polluted and is heavily dependent on chemical fertilizers. This would mean that there is a very good chance that our stream is unhealthy. However, judging by the previous years' data, the stream seems to be in good condition. Our hypothesis would be then
that our stream is fairly healthy and hangs in the balance, so we should do our best to keep it on the healthy side, not the unhealthy. Our stream is ouside teh town of Huairou, up in the hills to the North East. We actually drive through a part of the Great Wall on our way to the stream site. We will see what lives in our stream and what kids of chemicals we find and send our data in as soon as possible!!
 

Topic: Letter of Introduction
Conf: Letters of Introduction
From: Summerfield Grade School
Date: Thursday, April 26, 2001

Dear friends,
We are a fourth grade class from Summerfield, Illinois which is located about 25 miles east of St. Louis, Missouri.(38:35:44N and 89:44:50W with an elevation of 478 feet) We are a rural community of 550 population with many of our parents working as farmers, commuting to St.Louis, or employed by nearby Scott Air Force Base. Our school consists of one class each of Kindergarten through fifth grade.  During the year our school participates in a Pee Wee Tournament(4th and 5th basketball games), Jump Rope for Heart, Accelerated Reader, Heart Rock Cafe, a school carnival, and the President's Physical Fitness Tests.  We will be going to Locust Hills, a local golf course, to study their pond. We expect that most tests will be in the normal to excellent range.  Thanks to Mrs. Wood and Mrs. Owen for all their help.
 

Topic: Letter of Introduction
Conf: Letters of Introduction
From: Lebanon Grade School 4th Grade
Date: Thursday, April 19, 2001

Hello,
We are in 4th grade at Lebanon Grade School. Lebanon is in Illinois just east of St. Louis, Missouri. We are at 38.6115 degrees North latitude and 89.7644 degrees West longitude. We are studying and doing research on ponds at Locust Hills Golf Course in Lebanon. We are excited about this project because the ponds are in our town.

We know ponds fill with water and fish live in ponds. We also know that ponds are homes of frogs, tadpoles, and snakes. Some ponds are BIG and some are small. We think ponds are neat.  We have learned that ponds are important to our environment.

We will be making maps, graphs, and data tables. We are also learning some new vocabulary words as we study about ponds. We are also looking forward to our trip to the pond to run the tests for this project.

We are hoping that the pond environments at Locust Hills Golf Course are in very good condition.

Thank you for letting us share our experience and information with you.
 

Topic: letter of introduction
Conf: Letters of Introduction
Date: Sunday, April 22, 2001

Hi, I am a 6th grade homeschooler from Forest Lake, Pennsylvania (near Binghamton, New York). I am 3 hours north-west of New York City, NY and 1 hour north of Scranton, Pennsylvania. I will be testing the water at Silver Creek in Salt Springs State Park near my home. This creek is part of the Susquehanna watershed region. This is named for the Susquehanna River that begins in Cooperstown NY, and empties into the Chesapeake Bay in
the Atlantic Ocean. People have been concerned about pollution levels in the Chesapeake Bay for a long time. They suspect that some causes might be from run off from farms and industries. It will be interesting to test the water in the creek because it is surounded by farms.
 

Topic: Letter of Introduction
Conf: Letters of Introduction
Date: Friday, May 11, 2001

Greetings Global Water Sampling Project!
I'm in 6th grade and I am transitioning into 7th grade.  I have been home schooling for 3 years now.  We reside in Reno, Nevada and have chosen the Truckee River as our sampling project.  Reno is located at a latitude of 39.6344 N and 119.6846 W longitude, at an elevation of 4500 ft.

The Truckee River originates on the California side of Lake Tahoe and flows northeastward for more than 70 miles before terminating at Pyramid Lake in Nevada. The Truckee basin is a closed hydrologic system; all of its water is lost to evaporation, irrigation or infiltration.  Approximately 339,486 people live in the Truckee basin, which includes the urban areas of Reno and Sparks and several smaller agricultural communities. The major crops are alfalfa, cantaloupe and garlic.  The beneficial uses for the Truckee include irrigation, livestock watering, water contact recreation, industrial supply, municipal or domestic supply, wildlife propagation and propagation of aquatic life.  Water flow  in the Truckee River is highly regulated, and the demand for water often exeeds the supply.  Water quantity and quality play a major role in the management of the Truckee River.

Low DO (Dissolved Oxygen) levels have caused several fish kills, impacting populations of Lahontan cutthroat trout and cui-ui (kwee-wee). The cui-ui, a fish that has historically been a staple in the diet of the local Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, is on the national endangered species list. The Lahontan cutthroat trout, which supports a small recreational fishery, is classified as a threatened species.

My hypothesis is that hopefully, being that the Truckee River originates from one of the most clear water lakes in the world, Lake Tahoe, that the Truckee River should also be of high quality.