Environmental Community Project for Central High School (Mar Vista Projects, CA) Project Title: Student Waterkeepers in Action Contact: Christine Lee (chrlee at gmail.com) or Victor (vvasquez at ucla.edu) Goals: Train high school students at Central High School to be caretakers of their local watershed/water way. We will be working with Environmental Science & Engineering graduate students (ESE program), AIChE, the Engineering Graduate Student Association (EGSA), and the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS). Project Elements 1. Environmental education presentations by UCLA ESE and AIChE students at Central High School. This will include an overview of different kinds of contaminants that can be exposed to the aquatic environment including microbial, metals, other inorganics (fertilizers), organics, endocrine disrupters. We will also discuss origins of these pollutants. 2. Field excursion to nearby water body to conduct water sampling/environmental assessment. Kits will be provided for measuring the various parameters. Students will devise their own hypotheses regarding the quality of their waterway. We will use two types of kits: (1) Green Estuary Monitoring Kit and (2) Urban Water Quality Test Kit. Parameters to be measured will include: chlorine, copper, iron, hardness, nitrate, pH, phosphates, dissolved oxygen, total coliform, salinity, temperature, turbidity. 3. Students will prepare a poster that discusses the different types of pollutants and the results of the field excursion. 4. We will schedule a poster session date that will be hosted at UCLA. In addition to the poster presentations, high school students will tour UCLA and get exposure to the university. We will include environmental education aspects and include visits to the native species garden and Stone Canyon Creek. Benefits to school and local community 1. Environmental and community service training of students 2. Environmental awareness 3. Family and community participation 4. Cleaner environment/improved water quality because of awareness/education Benefits to UCLA community 1. Leadership, project organization, team-building 2. Community service 3. Mentorship between graduate students and undergraduate students |