Sept 6th ~ Oak Grove Elementary 5th Grade PBL

 Streamflow and RUBBER DUCKIES?!?!?!

I'm thrilled to be able to work with Oak Grove Elementary this year on their Problem Based Learning (PBL's) projects. In partnership with Dr. Barbara Shaw, CSU Extension Western Regional STEM Specialist, we are working with 5th grade students to determine the baseline water quality of Spring Creek, which runs behind their school playground.

Water is one of the most important resources we have on this planet and our students are learning to both appreciate and protect that resource from pollution.

Not our actual rubber duckies

Today we visited the creek with our supplies of waders, nets, rulers, measuring tapes, and rubber duckies! QUACK!!! Our goal was to look at 5 different locations around the creek and determine the rate of flow of water by measuring width, average depth, and water speed (by means of racing rubber duckies!) to calculate the water's movement in Cubic Feet per Seconds (CFS).

The different speeds, volumes, and movements of water all aid in our knowledge of what the water quality might be. Although we didn't collect a lot of scientific data this time out - Kids had a lot of fun with our ducks!



I am a STEM/k12 Educator with Colorado State University Extension. I love working with youth and encouraging them to participate in many forms of hand on education! Overall, our goal is to promote positive youth development and encourage youth to pursue higher education after high school.

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