A group of Clay High School biology students have taken on the challenge of contributing to a collection of scientific data about the quality of streams and rivers in northwest Ohio. 

Six students, Jessica Duez, Kayla Durczynski, Megan Ladd, Jasmine Samples, Jordan Shanks, and Annie Streight, along with their teacher, Caine  Kolinski, and a graduate student from the University of Toledo, Justin Chaffin, spent several hours wading through Wolf Creek, collecting water samples and macroinvertebrate specimens. 

The team performed several chemical tests on the samples to analyze the environmental quality of the water.  The team looked at such factors as dissolved oxygen, phosphate levels, nitrate levels, turbidity, and bacterial levels. They also sorted through several taxa of collected organisms to determine the health of the animal biodiversity. 

The team organized the data and presented it to a large audience at Nitschke Hall on the campus of the University of Toledo. Toledo Mayor Mike Bell was in attendance at the science symposium, thanking the participants for their contributions to improving the environmental quality of Northwest Ohio, and challenging them to do great things with their lives. 

The informational poster outlining the work done by the Clay students at Wolf Creek in Oregon was awarded the “Most Informative Display Award” at the Student Watershed Watch summit. 

Kolinski said, “The students did a great job of performing an authentic scientific investigation, then followed up by presenting the data in a way that contributed to the scientific community working toward enhancing our natural environment.” 

(Reprinted with permission from the February 2011 issue of the Oregon Oracle).

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