Baldwin High School

Baldwin High School is in the city of Milledgeville, Georgia, USA, which has a population of about 20,000. The town is the former state capitol, and present antebellum capitol of Georgia. Baldwin High is a large public high school with 1200 students. Our two classes are Biology I, the introductory class for biology. Most students in the classes are in the tenth grade. We are testing the water in a creek, and the pond it feeds into, which are both in our campus Nature Trail. Our hypothesis is that the creek will be more polluted than the large pond, as the creek contains some storm drainage. We don't expect much pollution in either case as there is no large factory or large population near the creek or pond. There are some cow pastures in the area. We are testing during the month of May, which in central Georgia is very warm in temperature.

Woodland Montessori Middle School

Monday, May 10, 2004 We, the students of Woodland Montessori’s middle school in New Windsor, New York, have decided to participate in this praiseworthy endeavor. We are located at latitude 41.5 N x longitude 74.1 W. We have only 15 students from grades 5-8 participating in this undertaking as we are a small private school that is a community in itself as well as very personalized. Each of us works at our own level, and not any lower or higher, although we give preferentiality to a challenge. We have decided to test an entire watershed in Black Rock Forest, from the top of the mountain to the Hudson River. Our hypothesis is that the water will be moderately clean, better than most of our plain tap water from nearby wells and reservoirs. We will also analyze water from around our own community. It is however likely that we will use this information only for our own studies. It is our opinion that the temperature of the water will be particularly chilly, and therefore the DO will be high, and the BOD level will be lower. We hypothesize that the pH level will be fairly close to 7.0 since it is further away from pollution-emitting buildings and vehicles. We are very thankful to be allowed to participate in this honorable study. Thank you! Sincerely Yours, The participating students and teachers at Woodland Montessori Middle School

Pupil's Palace Letter of Introduction

Name of the school: Children’s Palace Place Location: Soveja Street, nr.17, Constanta Latitude and longitude: 440 11`- latitudine nordica, 280 39`- longitudine estica Information about the school: • The children’s Palace Place is an institution that teaches students during their free time. These activities are geared towards increasing students’knowledge in developing their skills. • The Chemistry Club, which belongs to the Palace comprises of young members between 12 and 17 years old interested in practical scientific activities. The club carries out research on sea life, observing how it has changed as a result of human actions. Their goal is to create awareness among young people ant the local community of the importance of protecting the environment. The Chemistry Club participated in the 195 International Health and Environment Competition held in Istanbul, Turkey. The Club won a gold medal entitled “ A Study about the Eutrophication Phenomenon in the Black Sea” Other information: • Over the past 10 years the Club has organized annual national ecology where they celebrate International Environment Day on June 5th. They invite children and teachers to share and exchange ideas. In 1998 they were given a grant from the “Fundatia pentru o Societate Deschisa- Soros Foundation” for their project ”The Children of Constanta are watching over the cleanliness of the Black Sea “. The project also involved several school from the city, professors from the University of Constanta and researchers from the Romania Marine Research Institute. The children’s Palace Place intends to continue these activities and to develop a local networking of children interested in environmental issues. Hypothesis: • We wish to study and evaluate the water quality of the Lake “Siutghiol” , because our institution is near this location. The lake “Siutghiol” is a place of holiday resort and light industry that disturb the wildlife in the summer months. Siutghiol Lake was once a marine lagoon, but now is a freshwater lake separated from the sea by narrow sandbank, with reedbeds ant intermittent sandy shores. It is an unprotected zone.

High School LUCIAN BLAGA Constantza / ROMANIA

High School "Lucian Blaga" We learn at high school Lucian Blaga. The address is No.3-5, Martisorului Street, Constanta.  Our hometown is situating in central east Europe, Romania where 28.3E degrees longitude intersects the 44.1 degrees N latitude.  Our school is named after Lucian Blaga, a great Romanian writer, poet, play-writer, philosopher and essayist. Many of his poems, dramas philosophical works are studied and known by people.  With the help of our form master we have participated to some exhibitions housed by my high school.   We have involved in an ecological project for saving the nature, parks, beaches (Green week).  We participated to the international project" Spring day in Europe" 2003 and 2004.   On the 31st of October, each year we celebrate, the Day of Black Sea.  This was a great opportunity we had to show, cards to all the classes with information about the life into Black Sea and how the change of the Black Sea life cane changes our life.   We like The Global Water Sampling Project because we think that the water is a very important element in Earth's life and even our life.   We think that this could make the people reactions and some to think at the consequences of the pollution.   If we could work together as a team, we could save the ecosystem's life and by doing this, we will save our selves from destruction.

Rhinelander Catholic Central (RCC)

Hello, We are the wetland wanderers from RCC in Rhinelander, WI. We are seven 7th graders that are taking this as an elective. Our water, a very small lake with creek, that we're testing is about a half mile from our school. It is the only lake in about a 2 square miles of swamp in the middle of our city. Our whole city was built on the swamp, but the places that weren't built on were the wettest. Our town is about 10,000 people. It is very wooded and we have many lakes in the surrounding area. The Wisconsin River runs through town. Our school is a small urban school of third through eighth grade with only 20 - 30 kids per grade. The teachers are great and we learn a lot. We are curious as to how our water will test out. It is not obviously polluted, but it does not seem very full of life either. We hypothesize that the water will test out ok on all levels.

Briarcliff High School, Braircliff Manor NY

Letter of Introduction from Briarcliff High School Friday, May 21, 2004 We, the students of the AP Environmental Science Class at Briarcliff High School, are pleased to be a part of the Global Water Sampling Project. Our school is located in a suburban community that is about one hour from New York City in the historic Hudson Valley. The exact location of Briarcliff Manor on a map is 41° 8’ 39” N latitude and 73° 50’ 29” W longitude. Our area is moderately populated and has no industrial production of any kind. We recently learned about your program and we want to contribute our data to your project. We have been studying water quality in our local system for some time now and have gathered extensive data on the state of our stream. We have gone about measuring various parameters of the stream such as the level of phosphates, nitrites, nitrates, pH, ammonia content, and dissolved oxygen level of the water. We compiled all the data and used it to map out the health of our local stream. Our hypothesis was as follows: Since the stream is situated in a residential area, subject to forest runoff and lawn fertilizer runoff, and is only a few miles from the Hudson River, we surmise that the water in our stream will be fairly polluted. Since we hypothesize that the stream is polluted with fertilizer and forest runoff in particular, we assume that the stream will be high in nitrates and phosphate concentrations. The stream is not near any factories or industries so the water wouldn’t be really affected by chemical pollutants that could come from such factories or industries. Yet, since the stream is subject to our acidic forest runoff, we assume that the water will be somewhat acidic. We also think that even though the stream is thought to be slightly polluted, it is a steady running stream that gets aerated reasonably well; thus we hypothesize that the dissolved oxygen content will not be as low as say a pond with the same quality water. Furthermore, in the time in which we will be testing the stream (in the morning), the water is cold which we know to hold more oxygen than warm water. Our collected data has been useful to us in acquiring a profile of our small water system and we hope that it will aid you in your program to find water quality on a global scale. We realize that we are only giving you a piece of the puzzle but all great things must start somewhere. Good luck with your project and we hope that we can contribute further data in the future. Sincerely, The participating students and teachers at Briarcliff High School

Tampa Prep School

Letter of Introduction from Tampa Prep School 727 Cass Street Tampa, FL 33606 March 29, 2004 Global Water Sampling Project Stevens Institute of Technology Center for Improved Engineering and Science Education Hoboken, NJ 07030 Dear Global Water Sampling Project: We are a class of 64 sixth grade students from Tampa Preparatory School. As sixth grade students, we are the entry level for our school which houses 640 students in grades six through twelve. Our school's mission statement encourages us to "Think, Create, Be Yourself, Aspire to Excellence, and Go Beyond." With this in mind, we are excited to be part of this project. Our school is located next to the Hillsborough River in downtown Tampa, Florida. The absolute location of the school and project site is 27 degrees north and 82 degrees west. Since our school is a private day school, our student population comes from a lot of different places around Tampa Bay. However, most students live in Hillsborough County. This county had a population of 1,001,910 people in 2003 and is the home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Super Bowl Champions), and the Tampa Bay Lightening (soon to be Stanley Cup Champions). The site we have chosen for our participation in the project is part of the Hillsborough River, a river that runs 54 miles from its origin in the Green Swamp, to its mouth in Tampa Bay. The Hillsborough River has a drainage area of roughly 675 square miles and supplies 75% of the drinking water to the city of Tampa. It flows from east to west and is one of the largest river systems in Florida. The river is home to many species of animals that are endangered or threatened. Our specific study site is located approximately one mile up river from Tampa Bay. Because of the location, the water chemistry and rate of flow are heavily influenced by the daily tides. Since we will be taking water samples at an area that is approximately 53 miles from the origin of the Hillsborough River, we believe that our testing will show that the Hillsborough River exceeds acceptable levels of pollution. In order to prove this hypothesis, we will perform the following tests over a two-week period of time: •Temperature •PH •Dissolved Oxygen •Nitrates •Phosphates •Biological Oxygen Demand •Carbon Dioxide •Turbidity

Shikellamy High School , Sunbury PA

We, as the students of the Chemistry 1 classes at Shikellamy High School, are thrilled to be a part of The Global Water Sampling Project. Our school is located in central Pennsylvania, in a small town named Sunbury. Our school’s address is 600 Walnut Street, Sunbury PA, and our precise longitude and latitude is, 40:51:22.072N and 76:47:24.032W. Sunbury and the surrounding areas have a rich, and colorful history. Our school is named after the Indian chief, Shikellamy. As the chief of the Oneida tribe, Shikellamy asserted Iroquois dominion over conquered Delaware and other tribes. He lived in Shamokin Indian Town, which is now known as Sunbury. Also, Joseph Priestly, world famous as the discoverer of oxygen, built his last home in Northumberland on the banks of the Susquehanna River. Thomas Alva Edison selected Sunbury as one of six Pennsylvania towns in which to test his electric lighting system. On July 4th, 1883, the City Hotel became the first commercial building to be lighted with incandescent electrical lights. Our main water test site will be the Susquehanna River. The Susquehanna River is the United States’ 16th largest river and the largest river lying entirely in the U.S. that flows into the Atlantic Ocean. The river has two main branches that meet on the banks of Sunbury and our neighboring city, Northumberland. The Susquehanna is also home to the Worlds Largest inflatable dam. The Adam T. Bower Dam spans over 2700 ft between Sunbury and Shamokin Dam. When the dam is inflated, a body of water, named Lake Augusta, is created. This lake provides the ability of boating, swimming, fishing and other recreational activities in the Sunbury Area. We will be examining water samples from both above, and below the dam. Our hypothesis is that the water of the Susquehanna River will be polluted. Some factors which we have based our decision include sewage, industrial waste, garbage, boating pollution, and illegal dumping. The tests we are going to be using are, B.O.D., dissolved oxygen, phosphates, nitrates, pH, turbidity, and temperature.