Page 15 - Priorities #31 2005-July

Academics
A River Runs Through It
Students from WPS and Eastside College Prep test creek water by their campuses in a program under the auspices of a Stanford University biologist and San Francisquito Watershed Council.
Community, social responsibility, experiential learning – these are just a few of the elements of Woodside Priory teaching philosophy.
In AP Environmental Science, teacher Hovey
Clark puts them into action in creative ways. Working together with a Stanford University environmental scientist, a regional water quality specialist and a group of students in East Palo Alto, his students used creek water testing to broaden their understanding of the wider Bay Area ecosystem. At the same time, they solidified their academic learning and their perspective of social responsibility.
Throughout the spring semester, the 18 juniors and seniors in Mr. Clark’s A.P. Environmental Science class tested water weekly in three locations along San Franciscquito Creek— at the base of the Windy Hill development, by the bridge behind
the Priory campus, and at Dennis Martin Creek. San Francisquito originates in the hills and runs through horse ranches and past residences on its
way to these test sites. Substances that might be expected in these environments, such as manure, soaps, and septic tank and swimming pool leakage can affect the water quality in the creek, Mr. Clark said. (The students did not test for these substances specifically but rather for levels of oxygen and other indicators of the water’s “health.”) Students looked for substances that might be expected in these environments, such as soaps, and septic tank and swimming pool leakage, Mr. Clark said. Some students were so devoted to the project that they even came before school to test the water, he added.
Simultaneously, a biology class from
Eastside College Prep was doing the same testing downstream, next to their school in East Palo Alto. Both of these groups were assisted and trained
by Cindy Wilber, the education coordinator in
the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve (affiliated with Stanford), and Pam Sturner, from the
San Francisquito Watershed Council. The San Francisquito creek flows through or near all three
Today, everyone is downstream or downwind from someone else.
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