CITY-AS-LAB: INTEGRATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE INTO BROOKLYN HIGH SCHOOLS

As part of a new NSF GK-12 grant, a multi-disciplinary team of scientists and educators at Brooklyn College is working with five science-themed, New Visions small high schools in Brooklyn to improve STEM education using the Brooklyn urban environment as their science lab. Teachers at the selected high schools are working closely with graduate fellows participating in the project, in part, to implement field-based authentic student research, and apply GPS and GIS geospatial technology. Two of the five schools have chosen to integrate water-quality projects into non-Earth Science classes (a required ninth-grade field studies course, and Regents Physical Setting/Chemistry), thereby exposing a larger student base to important concepts in earth and environmental science, and linking these concepts to familiar environments in their home borough.

Students participating in the water projects are collecting water pH, temperature, phosphate, nitrate, and dissolved oxygen in Prospect Park, an artificial stream and lake system, and the urban lagoon of Jamaica Bay. These two “natural” laboratories are in close proximity and eutrophication is a critical issue in both systems. However, the source of nutrient enrichment contrasts sharply; Prospect Park is phosphorus-driven, whereas Jamaica Bay is nitrogen-driven. The downstream decrease in phosphate measured by students in Prospect Park is attributable to biological consumption of phosphate that is added to NYC tap water, which supplies Prospect Park's water system. In contrast, Jamaica Bay's high nitrate concentrations are associated with the city's water treatment and storm sewage effluent. Thus, within the borough, students can study a broad range of socially-important chemical, biological and environmental data that can be applied to a broad range of high-school curricula. Through the combination of field, lab and technology, students are able to conduct collaborative environmental research in a highly urban setting and potentially contribute data to a citizen monitoring network. Through GLOBE, the ongoing data collection from these two pioneering schools will become part of a publicly accessible database, thereby allowing additional schools to benefit from this citizen science initiative.