Northridge High School and GK12 Age 1.5 Team members: Sanjay Advani, Kyle Collins, Cindy Keesis, Mar

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Northridge High School and GK12 Age 1.5Team
members Sanjay Advani, Kyle Collins, Cindy
Keesis, Mark Morehouse, Tom Seibert
Integrated Science and GK-12 Whereas the
2001-2002 school year focused mainly on the
biology and chemistry classes, the 2002-03 school
years first major project was with Mark
Morehouses Integrated Science II class. This
project was aimed at measuring flow and mapping a
cross-section of the stretch of the Poudre River
that has been our main outdoor laboratory/classroo
m
Summary The GK-12 program at Northridge High
School expanded this year, adding undergraduate
fellow Kyle Collins and biology teacher Tom
Seibert. Biology teacher Cindy Keesis had taken
on Steve Swensons position in the team this past
summer. This team continued with its
investigations into aquatic ecology and water
quality in an attempt to emphasize the
applications of and connections between the
fields of chemistry and biology. In a similar
fashion to last year, fellows Sanjay Advani and
Kyle Collins spent time in the classroom of all
involved teachers and spent two full days giving
a larger presentation of our goals and the
primary investigation project to be kicked off
this spring.

• This years focus
• Last year, projects centered around the water
  quality and ecology of a stretch of the Poudre
  River that flows near Northridge. This year we
  look to expand on this same theme by
• Sampling from multiple sites along the river,
  from the Poudre Canyon, through Fort Collins and
  in Greeley. With this, we intend to qualitatively
  demonstrate how land use affects water chemistry
  and biological diversity.
• Focusing both biological and chemical
  investigations around questions and testable
  hypotheses developed by students.
• Considering a watershed approach emphasizing
  the connections from headwaters all the way down
  the river and the land that surrounds it
• This project will involve multiple field trips
  and we will be looking for volunteers from the
  program.

Students in Mark Morehouses IS II class measured
depth and flow rates to understand how a rivers
physical properties and recent weather play a
role in determining the rivers dynamics.
Students were also given an important lesson in
taking measurements in the field.
Below, Sanjay Advani confers with students in a
brainstorming activity

• Other developments
• The student fellows have expanded their contact
  with K-12 students and schools through
  cooperative work with other fellows.
  Interactions have included working on field
  projects spearheaded by other fellows, or
  guest-lecturing for teachers at other schools.
  This has been a positive trend, increasing the
  flow of information more successfully than the
  programs forays into technology. Other
  programmatic developments we would like to see
• Continued increases in information flow between
  fellows, PIs and teachers. A newly-adopted
  format for the monthly meetings will go a long
  way to facilitate this.
• Guidelines and technical support for publication
  of GK12 material.
• Direction at the program level to ensure
  continuity and support as new fellows are taken
  on, and others depart the program. This is
  essential as we come to the end of the second
  year and the original cohort considers their
  future with the program.

Over two days, Kyle Collins and Sanjay Advani led
discussions that introduced the concept of
watersheds and how science attempts to answer
questions about water quality. These days ended
with student designing scientific procedures to
answer the above and other questions.