Water SamplingSomerset 6/7 Intermediate

SchoolWestover, Maryland

SCHOOL SPIRIT

• We are 6th grade students at Somerset Intermediate School. Our town is Westover Maryland and we want to inform others about the quality of the water.

What We Do

We live near the Chesapeake Bay and seafood is an important

resource. So we care about our water.

Our Environment

• In science we have been learning about the food chain and food web.

• We have completed population studies and know that the health of populations depends on the quality of our environment.

Why We Are Sampling Water

We are sampling our water because we want to see how healthy it is.

That’s because it effects water all over the world and our water supply is scarce.

SAMPLING WATER

• We are sampling water because we think some of the water in our county is polluted.

Data ResultsBenthic Macroinvertabrates

16 and above 12-15 8-11 7 or less

Coliform Bacteria

Negative Positive

Dissolved Oxygen

91-110 71-90 51-70 <50

Nitrate 0 ppm 5 ppm 20, 40 ppm

pH 7 6, 8 4, 5, 9, 10, 11

Phosphate 1 ppm 2 ppm 4 ppm

Turbidity 3

Totals 1 2 1 3

Data Summary

• When we checked if the benthic macroinvertebrates were excellent, good fair, or poor and they came out poor.

• The pH was excellent• Phosphates were fair • Coliform bacteria

tested positive

Taking Action

We reported the results to the Somerset County Health Department.

We will run more tests on the water so we can find out what is or who is causing the pollution.

What We Can Do• Our next steps are

to tell people what we have found out about the water near our school.

• We can do whatever we can to stop people from polluting the water so we can get better results in the future.

Now What?

• We can stop putting too much fertilizer on the crops so they won’t leak into the water

• We could recycle.

We have to speak out because if we don’t who will ?

www.townofprincessanne.com/images/test04.gif

Credits

• Ashlyn Heath

• Shyera Gibbs

• David Sproul

• Nick Long• Darin Mister

• Andrew Hahn• Diamond Little• Kayla Corbin• Marcus Fontaine• Brian Robinson• All the Monster Squad Students!