My goal as a science teacher is to provide real-world, stimulating and cognitively appropriate instructional experiences for all my students. Phenomenon-driven lessons are an effective way to demonstrate relevance of instructional content to students and thereby enlist their interest in taking ownership of their own learning and be engaged citizen scientists. Using Vernier probeware and interfaces (and other instructional technology tools) to investigate and analyze local environmental issues affords students the opportunity to contribute to the body of knowledge as citizens scientists in a 21st century education format.

Students are taken on field studies to our school’s watershed local stream (Still Creek in Greenbelt Maryland) to conduct its water chemistry analysis and collect data. The data collected by our students are uploaded onto http://maryland.fieldscope.org/ which is accessible to the public and it is further analyzed using the Vernier Lab Quest2 to plot graphs from which inferences are made about our local stream’s health. Stream water chemistry parameters such as dissolved oxygen, pH, temperature, turbidity, salinity, conductivity, nitrates and sulfates ion concentrations are determined using Vernier probes; and these data, in addition to stream macroinvertebrates survey and stream corridor assessments using the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Alice Ferguson Foundation stream assessment protocols, are used to ascertain the health of our local stream and share with the aforementioned agencies as well as the public.