WATERSHED RESEARCH: ENGAGING STUDENTS LOCALLY

Environmental Methods of Investigation at Pacific Lutheran University is an interdisciplinary junior-level, research-based course required for the Environmental Studies major and minor. We use Clover Creek, a local, small, rapidly developing urban and agricultural Puget Sound watershed, to model watershed research and planning. The course begins with presentations by local experts and a field trip to introduce students to the watershed and local issues. Student teams then investigate complex human, biological, and physical interactions in a rapidly urbanizing watershed by collecting data from reports, the web, archival sources, and the field. Students select indicators from these data to analyze the health of the watershed and propose methods to maintain or promote watershed health. This study is shared with the community via oral presentations in class to local experts, posters at PLU's Academic Festival, and as an electronic paper on the web. Working with local agencies and community-based groups, the students develop a sense of civic responsibility through the service-learning experience. During the course, intense student interest is often sparked by topics presented by guest speakers and faculty, leading students to further research on these topics for their senior capstone projects. Students have presented results of these studies at local professional meetings. Data from the research have been incorporated into agency documents and utilized in local decision making processes.