WHAT:  Aquatic Sciences: All About Water Ecosystems

WHO: Homeschooled High Schoolers

From the water we drink to the estuaries that supply some of that water to groundwater and runoff to the wildlife in and around, the students will investigate aquatic ecosystems.

Limnology is the study of inland aquatic ecosystems.  It covers the biological, chemical, physical, geolocial and other attributes of all inland waters (running and standing waters, both fresh and saline, nautral or manmade). This includes the study of lakes and pond, rivers, springs, streams and wetlands as well as groundwater. A more recent sub-discipline of limnology, termed landscape limnology, studies, manages, and conserves these aquatic ecosystems using a landscape perspective.

After learning about various analytical methods and scientific techniques, the students will collect and analyze data to help "solve" water related problems; they will even engage in an historical investigation using current scientific trends to arrive at a solution for that historical problem based on historical facts.

Class will meet on Wednesdays from September 19, 2018 from 1 p.m. - 3 p.m. through December 12, 2018.  There will be one class conducted on a Tuesday instead of Wednesday, which will be October 30, 2018 from 10 a.m. until noon, and there will be no class the week of Thanksgiving.

Fairmount Water Works

• Wednesday, September 19, 2018 - Introduction to the Fairmount Water Works: Purpose and Mission

• Wednesday, September 26, 2018 - Field trip to Belmont Water Treatment Plant

• Wednesday, October 3, 2018 - Field Trip to Southeast Water Pollution

• Wednesday, October 10, 2018 - Plankton Net Sampling - Microbiology; Mussel Hatchery

• Wednesday, October 17, 2018 - Tree ID, Tree Health, tree and fish connex

• Wednesday, October 24, 2018 - Temp, turbidity, chemistry as a monitoring tool (Class will be held at 700 Cobbs Creek Parkway, Philadelphia, PA)

• Tuesday, October 30, 2018 - Building as a machine - apprentice pump and gear engineers

• Wednesday, November 7, 2018 - Stream Dynamics (Class will meet at The Cedar's House, Forbidden Drive on Northwestern Avenue off of Germantown)

Cobbs Creek:

• Wednesday, November 14, 2018 - Ecosystems of the Delaware Watershed with a walk through woods, meadow, and wetland at CCCEC

• Wednesday, November 28, 2018 - Fish seining and macro-invert sampling lesson

• Wednesdays, December 5th and 12th, 2018 - Wildlife of Delaware watershed (2 lessons)