2006 Pre-College Science Education Awardee

Kaitlin Friedman (Geology and Environmental Science)

Proposal

Meetings/Presentations/Workshops/Projects

Mentors: Dr. Don Barber and Dr. Blythe Hoyle (BMC, Geology Dept.)

Mill Creek Watershed and Bryn Mawr Campus Pond

Kaitlin Friedman

In developing my proposal for the HHMI Science Horizons Pre-College Science Education Internship, I have consulted with Professors Don Barber and Blythe Hoyle in the Bryn Mawr geology department and Neal Williams in the biology department. During the summer of 2006, I hope to work under the supervision of these professors, namely Dr. Barber, to address important issues surrounding pre-college environmental education in the Mill Creek watershed, which includes the Bryn Mawr campus. In order to interpret the condition of their immediate surroundings effectively, young people need both the conceptual understanding of how their watershed functions and the skills necessary for assessing their immediate surroundings. My hope is to develop a program in which elementary- and middle-school students can visit Rhoads Pond and the sections of Mill Creek adjacent to Bryn Mawr’s campus in order to gain a set of conceptual and practical tools they can use to apply the science of watersheds to their own lives.

In order to design an effective educational program, I must first gain a better personal understanding of how our region of the Mill Creek watershed functions. I plan to begin my project by consulting with Banny Ackerman (the science director in the watershed classroom at Radnor Middle School), Jean Wallace (the curriculum director at Green Woods Charter School) other local science educators, and written resources to determine the essential data that students in primary grades can grasp when learning about their watershed. I plan to focus my collection of geochemical and ecological data on these areas, and I will also work with another geology major, Evan Pugh HC ’06, to perform more advanced assessments of Rhoads Pond and Mill Creek, based on the suggestions that Professors Barber, Hoyle, and Williams have given us. We will develop data collection protocols and standards for how to interpret our data, and we will maintain records of our results throughout the summer. I will work to simplify these protocols and records so they will be accessible to the visiting students, and, with Evan’s web design skills, we hope to create a webpage documenting our results, which will be available to the general public (including local educators and schoolchildren).

Throughout the summer, I plan to consult with local schoolteachers, curriculum guides, and state standards for science education to better understand how to shape the afternoon field trip program and take-home materials. Ms. Ackerman and Ms. Wallace have also agreed to let me test the program on their students once I am finished. Upon completion, I plan to work with the Bryn Mawr College Center for Science and Society to determine whether this program could fit within the structure of the “Fridays in the Lab” program already in place, or to work with the education department, the civic engagement office, and others at Bryn Mawr to determine another context through which the school groups could visit our campus for an afternoon.

Additionally, because I hope to realize this as an actual field trip program, I will continue work on this project throughout the school year by working with local school groups. I hope to incorporate an aspect of this project into my senior geology research project, so it will be necessary that I continue working on it well into the fall regardless of the time constraints on the internship.