{"id":7376,"date":"2022-01-13T07:58:35","date_gmt":"2022-01-13T13:58:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=7376"},"modified":"2022-01-13T07:58:35","modified_gmt":"2022-01-13T13:58:35","slug":"high-schoolers-jump-into-freshwater-science","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/high-schoolers-jump-into-freshwater-science\/","title":{"rendered":"High schoolers jump into freshwater science"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Photo
High school student Quienten Anger measuring nitrate value in the Chippewa River with Professor J. Brian Mahoney. Willow Anderson in the background.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
Summer program provides hands-on experiences studying lakes, rivers and streams throughout Wisconsin.<\/strong><\/div>\n

What\u2019s the best way to get high school students interested in water sciences? Get their feet wet, literally. That\u2019s just what 14 students did last summer when they participated in the Freshwater Science Summer Field Experience, funded by a grant through the Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

Spearheaded by Dr. J. Brian Mahoney, geology professor at UW-Eau Claire, the summer short course involved experiences led by faculty from UW-Eau Claire, UW Oshkosh, UW-River Falls and UW-Stout. Funding from the Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin allowed students to participate at no cost. They also had the option to pay tuition to earn two college credits at one of the participating institutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tried to introduce the students to as many different aspects of freshwater science as we could,\u201d Mahoney says. \u201cWe kind of fire-hosed these kids, and they soaked it up. They loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photo
Biology professor Dave Lonzarich electrofishing to catalog fish in Little Niagra Creek. Students (L:R) Owen Wiggen, Gabe Girard, Willow Anderson, Quienten Anger<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over the course of six days, students kayaked on Halfmoon Lake to explore the fish and wetlands; studied the hydrogeology and biology of the rivers running through UW-Eau Claire\u2019s campus; visited the Minnesota Zoo to look at invasive species with faculty from UW-River Falls; traveled to Door County to research Great Lakes beaches and contamination and run lab tests with UW Oshkosh faculty; and investigated algal blooms and stream flows in Menomonie with UW-Stout faculty.<\/p>\n

For Emma Johnson, a senior at Memorial High School in Eau Claire, the program opened her eyes to the career possibilities she can pursue with her post-secondary education. Johnson is considering a degree in environmental science and learned about the program through her high school science teacher. She was immediately interested.<\/p>\n

Her favorite experience was going to Door County to research microplastics in Lake Michigan. She appreciated that she was able to conduct the same kind of research and testing that a college student would \u2014 and that it was applicable.\u201c<\/p>\n

\"Photo
Emma Johnson and Maddy Knauff measure groundwater properties at a UW Eau Claire well field.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It seemed like a really great opportunity to learn a lot about something that\u2019s so valuable to us, especially in Wisconsin,\u201d she says. \u201cWater is such an important resource that we are always going to need to maintain. There\u2019s always going to be jobs in that area.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was applying general ideas to the real world. That\u2019s what environmental sciences is about,\u201d she says. \u201cI had a lot of new opportunities that I wouldn\u2019t have been able to have experienced without taking this course.\u201d<\/p>\n

A bonus was that participating in the program gave Johnson insight into what life as a college student would be like.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis gave me an idea of how to communicate with professors and ask them questions,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t as intimidating as I thought it would be. The professors were there to help you. I was very free to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mahoney has wanted to create a program to help recruit high school students to UW-Eau Claire and connect to nearby universities. The summer course provided students the opportunity to visit four UW campuses and learn from 11 faculty members and two undergraduate mentors. The feedback was beyond expectations, and the group hopes to continue the course, with a different institution taking the lead each year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis kind of collaboration is exactly what we\u2019ve been talking about with the Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin,\u201d Mahoney says. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping this will be a model for other institutions to do similar collaborative efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

See more Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin research stories<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summer program provides hands-on experiences studying lakes, rivers and streams throughout Wisconsin. What\u2019s the best way to get high school students interested in water sciences? Get their feet wet, literally. That\u2019s just what 14 students did last summer when they participated in the Freshwater Science Summer Field Experience, funded by a grant through the Freshwater […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":7379,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[96,94,100,90],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-7376","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-eau-claire","institution-uw-oshkosh","institution-uw-river-falls","institution-uw-stout"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/7376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7376"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=7376"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=7376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}