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Watershed Access Lab held the 2008 - 2009 school year seminar in April. 

This year's seminar will be held in April, 2010, stayed tuned for more details.

On April 30, 2009, WAL held its twelfth annual spring seminar for the 2008-2009 school year. Dr. Curry made a brief presentation about the the history of the program and the achievements of many teachers and hundreds of students throughout Southeastern Massachusetts.  Dr. Edward Brush, professor in Chemistry, also made a brief presentation about the Center for Sustainability at Bridgewater State College.

The Executive Office of Energy and Environment highlights the importance of local community involvement in watershed stewardship and land use planning. The Bridgewater State College RiverNet Watershed Access Lab Project prepares "key educators" who assist their local community in developing watershed initiative projects. Teachers participating in the Watershed Access Lab Project learn principles in watershed assessment and train their students and community members through local watershed initiative assessment projects in Massachusetts.

Bridgewater State College plays a major role in advancing the concepts of Watershed Initiative through the RiverNet Watershed Access Lab. The Watershed Access Lab (WAL) provides state-of-the-art technology used in land use and water quality assessment to trained teachers for use with their student teams to conduct local watershed investigations. Teachers participating in the program are eligible to use equipment from the Watershed Access Lab to use in their schools to develop and conduct Watershed Projects.

This web site showcases the work being done by the area high schools and middle schools and provides community members with information on efforts to protect regional watersheds. As this web site evolves, the projects completed in previous years are archived and remain available through the "Select a Topic" menu.

Course Information

Bridgewater State College offers WAL Summer Institutes during the last two week of the Second Summer Session to train teachers on current technology used in watershed assessment.

Teachers participating in the project through the NSCI 521 watersheds course can receive 4 graduate credits.  This interdisciplinary course promotes watershed assessment as a tool in environmental education and watershed stewardship.

The summer institute and fall semester projects emphasize hands on training in water quality assessment using computerized water quality monitoring, macroinvertebrates as bioindicators of river health and the use of ArcView GIS.

The project goal is to evaluate the land use impacts on water quality in the participating school district's community. The first year of the project involved teams of teachers from Apponequet High School, Middleboro High School, Middleboro Junior High, and Plymouth South High School.

Since our first project team in 1997, sixty-nine teachers from forty-two schools throughout Southeastern Massachusetts have participated in the program. New teams selected and trained each year can check out equipment from the Watershed Access Lab to use with their student teams to study their local watershed.

Teacher/student teams may schedule time in the Watershed Access Lab for detailed investigation during their school year and use the on site Arcview GIS Workstations to aid their study of land use impacts on water resources.

In the fall, following each team's training, a RiverNet Watershed Access Lab Seminar takes place at the Moakley Center for Technological Applications at Bridgewater State College where school teams present the results of their watershed investigations.

Each year the NSCI 521 course is offered during the summer and fall, with enrollment limited to 10 teachers. Teachers interested in the WAL graduate course who have had some introductory background in biology, environmental sciences, or earth sciences will benefit most from this course.

Required background preparation includes one course in ecology or an equivalent course, and an additional course in either general chemistry, earth science, or geography.

Who to Contact

NSCI 521:  Watersheds:  Stream Ecology, Water Quality and Land Use

Contact Dr. Kevin Curry or Kim McCoy for details.

Kevin D. Curry, Ph.D.
Attn.: WAL Summer Course
Biology Department
Bridgewater State College
Bridgewater, MA 02325
KCURRY@BRIDGEW.EDU

Kim McCoy
Watershed Access Lab
Moakley Building, Rm 304
Bridgewater State College
Bridgewater, MA 02325
KMCCOY@BRIDGEW.EDU