THE FOX RIVER BASIN PROGRAM: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY, MULTI-INSTITUTIONAL PROGRAM INTEGRATING TEACHING AND RESEARCH IN THE FOX RIVER WATERSHED, NE WISCONSIN

Faculty members at Lawrence University, a selective private liberal arts college, and the University of Wisconsin – Fox Valley (UWFox), a two-year college in the University of Wisconsin system, have launched a collaborative program focused on integrating the lower Fox River watershed in northeast Wisconsin into our teaching and research. Industrial contamination, including PCB's and heavy metals, agricultural chemicals, nutrient-loading from urban and agricultural runoff, and an increase in the number of invasive species have stressed the Fox River, similar to many other river systems. The environmental issues facing the Lower Fox River are interconnected, where all of the environmental stresses interact to impact the system as a whole. Thus, no single aspect of the river system can be fully understood without consideration of the other parts. Our goal is to foster a collaborative, interdisciplinary “community of science” consisting of students and faculty at Lawrence, UWFox, and local secondary schools. This community of science will facilitate a more comprehensive understanding of the system by bringing together individual researchers investigating these issues from different perspectives, improving the quality and scope of research being conducted on this system. This systems level approach will better enable the integration of research and teaching at all grade levels ranging from secondary school through senior-level college courses. Students at all levels will be exposed to, and participate in, meaningful research with a local focus. Within the “community,” students and faculty will have the opportunity to discuss, explain, and refine their analysis and understanding of the various research projects as well as the broader regional and global context into which their work fits. Additionally, we will implement a “research-mentoring” program in which secondary school teachers and students work directly with student and faculty researchers at Lawrence and UWFox. Conducting scientific research on the Fox River basin provides a significant and relevant context, helping students to better connect the various important factors that govern the health of an environmental system, and will allow students to use methods for direct investigation and analysis, putting their education into greater context.