Rouge Education Project Overview

The Rouge Education Project is a unique opportunity coordinated by Friends of the Rouge for elementary through high school students and educators to become involved with the Rouge River. Funded, in part, by the Rouge River National Wet Weather Demonstration Project, the Education Project combines water quality testing and computer skills and uses these to encourage students to affect change in their communities. This interdisciplinary focus centers around the components of research/data collection and problem solving/action taking.

The Rouge Education Project was started in 1987. A Rouge River Advisory Group was formed to help guide the development of this program. The advisory group consisted of local officials, teachers, curriculum coordinators, Friends of the Rouge, water resource professionals, and educators from the University of Michigan, School of Natural Resources. This group was instrumental in identifying teachers and developing goals for the program. Participation has grown from 16 schools in its first year, to its current number of over 90 participating schools.

When studying rivers, data collection is done through water quality testing. It is important to measure the quality of a river over time to detect changes that have occurred in the ecosystem. The Education Project studies the river's water quality through nine chemical tests:

• Dissolved Oxygen
• Fecal Coliform
• pH
• Biochemical Oxygen Demand
• Temperature
• Total Phosphate
• Nitrates
• Turbidity
• Total Solids

Participating schools also collect and identify benthic macroinvertebrates, such as aquatic insects. These organisms are a useful indicator of water quality. Pollution reduces the number of species in the water by eliminating organisms that are sensitive to changes in water quality. In general, the greater the variety of aquatic insects the more stable the water quality.

Water quality is also affected by how the surrounding land is developed and managed. Participating schools also complete a physical stream survey recording surrounding land uses, streambank erosion, and other characteristics of their sampling site on the river. The Education Project discusses how various land use practices affect the quality of the Rouge.

The data collection component also includes students' thoughts, feelings, and images that occur during their experience with the river. These informal observations are important because they often motivate them into the problem solving/action taking component.

The Rouge Education Project not only tests rivers to determine the water's health, but also prescribes "treatment" or courses of action. Students, teachers and citizens team up to develop plans to improve the quality of the river. This component provides another opportunity for experience beyond the typical classroom setting.

The problem solving component encourages students to expand the scope of study beyond that of pure science and begin to perceive the river as artists, business persons, community leaders and citizens might. The Education Project calls for skills used in language arts, social studies, and other classes, as well as science classes like ecology or biology.

Curricula for students are based on the book "Field Manual for Water Quality Monitoring: An Environmental Education Program for Schools" by Mark Mitchell and William Stapp. This book instructs students on how to perform and evaluate nine water quality tests. It also describes how benthic macroinvertebrates and land use practices relate to water quality

To become involved in the Rouge Education Project contact: Rouge Education Project Coordinator at repcoordinator@therouge.org or Associate Coordinator at ascoordinator@therouge.org or call 313-792-9626.

REPORTS

DemoInfo - Rouge Education Project - EDUCATIN.PDF (95k)

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Please address all comments and suggestions about the contents of this Web page to rougeweb@co.wayne.mi.us.

The Rouge River National Wet Weather Demonstration Project is funded, in part, by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Grants #XP995743-01, -02, -03, -04, -05, -06, -08 and C-264000-01.