The students are interested in the pollution of the LA River by trash and are starting a recycling/waste reduction campaign on campus to reduce excess trash. My hope is that we are able to find the materials to do water quality tests and effectively communicate the importance of waste reduction and its impact on water quality and biodiversity to the community.
Students will measure the water quality indicators in the Glendale Narrows area of the LA River, and log what wildlife they observe. Using this information, they decided they wanted to teach the middle school students on our campus about the history of the river, how to tell if the water is healthy, and how to become a steward themselves. They are writing four 20-minute lesson plans that they will deliver to the middle school students. Students will work for 2 months on this project: sampling water and looking for indicator species, researching the history of the river, planning and delivering lessons, and designing a waste reduction program. We will collect data on the amount of diverted waste at our school site and continue to monitor the water quality/species in the river to compare the data.
