Stream Studies

The Stream Studies Program is a water quality education and community outreach program that engages Onondaga County high schools, middle schools, and teachers in water quality monitoring, stream ecology, pollution, and conserving local streams. The program has been developed to meet NYS STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education requirements and offers two styles of teaching. It offers a formal in-class portion and an active hands-on technical stream study.

In-class education incorporates presentations, demonstrations, lectures, labs, and activities to engage students. In-class materials cover topics in history, geography, entomology, hydrogeology, geology, chemistry, biology, and systems relationships.

With Cornell Cooperative Extensions assistance, teachers engage students with a hands-on, stream study. Through active sampling students assess three parameters of a stream. Students use math, chemistry, and aquatic entomology to analyze the physical, chemical, and biological properties and overall water quality of the stream. In the stream, students also receive technical experience using EPA approved quality assured water sampling protocols and equipment. Following the stream study students and teachers have the opportunity to input their collected data into an online database and track the health of their stream and other Onondaga County streams.

Last updated April 2, 2015