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© 2021 National Earth Science Teachers Association. All Rights Reserved.

Volume XXXVII, Issue 1

Abstract

This high school project, supported by NOAA Planet Stewards, developed a learning 

community with shared goals of explaining a phenomenon and finding a solution to a 

local watershed problem. Students completed community environmental inventories, 

identified strengths and weaknesses in their community, selected an issue in need of a solution, and then researched and planned a stewardship action project to address the issues 

identified. Questions that students needed to answer were recorded and investigations 

were planned to help them design a solution to the problem they identified. We sought 

out community partnerships to provide learning experiences that helped answer those 

questions and the deeper questions that also emerged. We sought out cross-curricular and 

cross-grade partnerships within our school and district to draw the attention and interest 

of a wider range of students. Students presented their work within the district by creating 

videos for the morning announcements, presenting at school board meetings, and hosting 

groups of 5th grade classrooms for a field trip. Additionally, students reached beyond our 

district by presenting their work at conferences, submitting grant proposals, and entering 

journalism competitions. 

Introduction

Professional learning: In the summer of 2017 I attended several transformative professional learning 

experiences. The first was the B-WET funded 3-day Great Lakes Watershed Field course where I was 

introduced to the Earth Force framework to authentically engage students in stewardship action. I also 

attended the week-long “Learn While Teaching” workshop at Northwestern University where I gained 

understanding about creating units of instruction that are coherent from the students’ point of view 

while also thinking deeply about how to make my classes more equitable by creating lessons where ALL 

students are part of the knowledge building. (National Research Council, 2012) and (Berland et al, 2015). 

Lastly, I attended another NOAA B-WET Program – “Promoting Healthy Watersheds and Communities 

by Integrating Ecosystem Science, Transportation Networks, and Stewardship,” hosted by Michigan 

Natural Features Inventory with support from River Raisin Institute. This heightened my awareness of 

many invasive species impacting our watershed and how they spread; this workshop also introduced 

Leveraging Student Interest and Community 

Partnerships to Drive Learning in Meaningful 

Watershed Educational Experiences 

Holly Hereau
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© 2021 National Earth Science Teachers Association. All Rights Reserved.

me to the Vernal Pool Patrol (https://vernal-pool-patrol-mnfi.hub.arcgis.com/). These 

combined experiences gave me the content knowledge and pedagogical confidence to 

apply for funding from NOAA Planet Stewards and to facilitate this authentic, studentled stewardship action project. The Earth Force framework gave clear guidance for how 

to help students work through this process and come to a consensus on the action 

project to undertake. The first two steps served as an extended anchoring phenomenon 

routine (https://www.nextgenstorylines.org/) and ensured the experience met the qualities of a good anchor (Penuel & Bell, 2016).

School: Lee M. Thurston High School is in Redford, MI which is a suburb that 

borders Detroit. Most students that attend this school live in Redford, and many 

students live in Detroit and other surrounding areas as well. The socioeconomic 

makeup of our school is such that 62% of students received free or reduced lunch 

during the 2018-19 school year. 

Student Learning: The Earth Force framework makes space for students to practice thinking about what they need to consider when undergoing any large design 

project; defining a problem, research existing solutions, working within criteria and 

constraints, and identifying and reaching out to stakeholders. I used ideas I learned 

from NGSS Storyline design to ensure students were using the science and engineering practices to uncover important science ideas necessary and developing and using the Cross 

Cutting Concepts to construct detailed explanations of the phenomena underlying the issues they 

identified to design an effective solution. Typically, when designing a unit, first choose the performance expectations you want to build toward, then unpack the DCIs (disciplinary core ideas) to 

understand the ideas that students will need to figure out. Then, think about candidate phenomena 

that may get students to figure out these ideas (Reiser, 2014 and Reiser et al. 2015). If students are 

in charge of choosing the phenomenon/problem the instructor needs to be purposeful in determining a way to facilitate learning that provides three dimensional experiences that help students 

dig deeper and discover new connected ideas. Instead of unpacking the DCIs first, the teacher needs 

to work backwards from the phenomenon to the ideas necessary to explain the phenomenon or 

solve a related problem. These ideas inform the performance expectations that are selected to build 

toward for the unit.

Community Environmental Inventory 

and Issue Selection to Identify 

the Problem

The purpose of the anchoring phenomenon routine in 

the storyline process is to ensure all students have a way to 

directly engage with the phenomenon or problem, voice 

their initial ideas publicly, think about related problems 

or phenomena, and finally record questions they have that 

will drive their learning throughout the unit. This process 

brings the class together as a learning community with 

shared goals of explaining a phenomenon and/or finding 

a solution to a problem. (Reiser et al., 2017)

Students completed the community environmental inventory by walking around outside the school, on the roof, 

through the hallways, in classrooms, and in the cafeteria. 

While there wasn’t yet a specific problem that would lead 

Figure 1. The Earth Force 

Framework (https://earthforce

org/caps/)

Figure 2. Students attempt to enter the patch of Phragmites before realizing it is 

too thick to get through. As some students are measuring some of the physical

characteristics of the area, other students record the data they are reporting

Photo Credit: Holly Hereau
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© 2021 National Earth Science Teachers Association. All Rights Reserved.

Volume XXXVII, Issue 1

to our project development, these inventories helped students begin 

to explore all the phenomena related to human activity and connect 

these to their own lives. They valued this experience more than I 

anticipated. Several students made comments such as “I’ve learned 

more in the first two weeks of this class than I have ever learned in 

any class for the whole year”, which I attribute to the fact that these 

activities made students feel personally connected to this learning. 

There were several problems that students identified as they 

discussed the data they collected from their inventories: Food 

waste in our cafeteria, electricity/energy waste throughout the 

building, lack of convenient recycling opportunities for both 

plastic and paper, several areas on campus where water pooled, lots 

of impervious surfaces that ran directly into the sewer, a humanmade pond that was in disrepair and covered in duckweed and 

algae, and a retention pond/drainage ditch that was overrun by 

invasive Phragmites. Students presented information about potential solutions, the impact of the solution, and logistics involved 

with project implementation. Once all solutions were presented, 

the class discussed the options and came to a consensus on the 

project they would adopt.

Students split into groups to research these issues and possible 

solutions so they could present their findings to the whole class. 

The class worked together to formulate a list of criteria and 

constraints that could help them decide which project to choose 

and each group agreed to consider and address each of these 

criteria and constraints when presenting their group proposals:

Each group presented their ideas to their classmates, and the class 

came to a consensus on finding a solution for the Phragmites-infested 

retention pond. They noticed it had low biodiversity which did not support pollinators, there were 

reports that the dense reeds were providing habitat for undesirable mammals (namely rats), the reeds 

were also trapping a lot of trash which was an eyesore, and the water was “dirty”. 

Students formulated some goals for this project that went beyond solving the environmental problems they identified. Several times since the start 

of this project, and again during this consensus 

discussion, different students brought up the idea 

that they couldn’t believe they were not aware of 

“any of these issues in their environment” and they 

were upset that they were not learning about this 

until they were 11th or 12th grade. Another student 

responded with “right, but we’re the only people in 

this class – the rest of our school probably doesn’t 

know about these problems either”. Project goals 

allow for coherence from the students’ perspective. 

At any point during these learning experiences if 

students are asked “Why are you doing that?” they 

would be able to answer by listing one of their goals.

Figure 3. Small groups worked together to do preliminary research on one 

of the identified issues to present to the class.

Photo Credit: Holly Hereau

Table 1. Criteria and constraints that the class considered to inform 

project selection

Figure 4. The project goals were identified and are listed next to the additional personal 

goals I had for this project
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© 2021 National Earth Science Teachers Association. All Rights Reserved.

By the same token, if an observer asked me “Why are they doing that” I would be able to list something from each list (Berland et al, 2015).

Creating the Driving Questions Board and Listing Ideas 

for Investigations

As students added questions to the Driving Questions Board, they realized there was still a lot of 

information they didn’t know and would need to figure out before forming a plan. 

l	 What do we need to figure out to be able to do this?

l	 What plants do we want?

l	 Why do we need a pond there? What does it do? Where would the water go otherwise? What 

are all these big things that look like drains?

l	 What made the pond show up? Where is the water coming from? (several teachers told 

students that the pond is “new” and that area used to be a dry field).

l	 Retention pond/rain garden design - How big will it have to be? Where are all the areas the 

water drains from, and how much water enters after rain events? Is there a way to figure out 

how much water needs to be held there?

l	 How will we find the information? Are there others in the community we can partner with?

l	 How will we know if our project works?

l	 Do we need permission to do this? If so, who do we need to ask? Where do we start?

l	 How can we involve more people in our project?

Students formed task committees to attempt to answer some of these preliminary questions by 

investigating: 

l	 Soil type and characteristics

l	 Native plant selection to ensure staggered and overlapping flowering times to support 

pollinators

l	 Equipment budget – determine best vendors for tools and other materials we will need.

l	 Effective and safe methods for Phragmites removal and disposal

l	 Meeting with the Superintendent for project approval

As students began to dig deeper into these investigations, they discovered they had 

even more questions. Their research also uncovered some organizations in our 

community that could help us learn more about how to assess our project area. 

Forming Community, Cross-Curricular, and CrossGrade partnerships

Student groups came back with some clear first steps. We needed to remove the 

Phragmites. This proved to be a much larger job than anyone would have imagined. 

While students were still involved in the seemingly never-ending thankless task 

of removing Phragmites we were also busy forming exciting partnerships to help 

us learn more about our watershed. Partnering with different community groups 

in our county and state also allowed students to contribute data to different 

long term monitoring projects. We partnered with Friends of the Rouge (https://

therouge.org/rouge-education-project/) and worked with the Rouge Education 

Project to help learn how to collect physical, chemical, and biological data that 

indicate the health of streams and rivers. We used this knowledge and skill set 

Figure 5. Students collecting more data on the area 

overgrown with Phragmites to help figure out a solution

Photo Credit: Holly Hereau
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© 2021 National Earth Science Teachers Association. All Rights Reserved.

Volume XXXVII, Issue 1

to collect data along a section of the Rouge River near our school to help with the Friends of the 

Rouge long-term monitoring project. Then students used what we learned to help decide what data 

we would need to collect and keep track of in our body of water. 

Students also identified the need to visit a wetland that was more similar to our wetland, rather 

than a river that has quickly flowing water to learn about the differences between still and running 

water to define target values for our ecosystem. We partnered with the Michigan Natural Features 

Inventory (https://mnfi.anr.msu.edu/) and folks from Nankin Mills (http://www.nankinmills.org/) 

to collect data about the health of the vernal pools located there. Students learned about the importance of these wetlands for biodiversity and wondered if our target ecosystem would ever be able to 

support so many different species. Finally, students worked with Inland Seas Education Association 

to apply what we learned from monitoring streams and pools to collect data aboard Schoolship on 

Lake Michigan in Suttons Bay (https://schoolship.org/). 

The students studied wetlands and open bodies of water to compare their vastly different size and 

important characteristics. However, students successfully used patterns in data to figure out that 

similar phenomena have similar causes in these systems - and that all these systems are connected. 

Students also wrestled with scale and the kinds of allowances we need to make to account for scale, 

proportion and quantity when investigating these different bodies of water, especially considering 

Figures 6 and 6a. Students are in the forest studying a vernal pool to learn about what and how to measure characteristics of pools; students collected data 

to monitor the health of a nearby stream in the Rouge river watershed

Photo credit: Holly Hereau

Figure 7 and 7a. Students ready to embark on the Inland Seas vessel Schoolship to collect data that monitors the health of Lake Michigan in Suttons Bay

Photo Credit: Kara Clayton
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© 2021 National Earth Science Teachers Association. All Rights Reserved.

the differences we noticed in areas way upstream in the Rouge river compared to downstream. 

Students consistently used NGSS Science and Engineering Practices to uncover Disciplinary Core 

Ideas and were also developing the ability to use the Cross Cutting Concepts to fully explain the 

complex interactions that contribute to the problems they noticed. (Schwarz, et al. 2017)

To get more students in our school aware and involved, we reached out to the video productions 

teacher and co-wrote a grant proposal to support the addition of environmental journalism and 

reporting to our project. We were awarded the grant from Michigan State’s Knight Center for 

Environmental Journalism (https://knightcenter.jrn.msu.edu/) and began planning ways to draw 

more students to this project who may not have initially been interested in the science alone. This 

provided an avenue to create media to share with students and others in our school and beyond. A 

student wrote a grant proposal and was awarded the prize from kidsgardening.org which allowed 

us to move forward with the work we planned to include hosting 5th grade students in learning 

stations and inviting them to join us when we finally installed our plants. Another student won 

2nd place in the “hard news” category of the Michigan Association of Broadcasters student awards 

for a submission about the stewardship action project and how it has a positive impact on student 

learning, and a group of students presented their work at an Environmental Journalism conference 

at Michigan State University. 

Data Collection and Results

As the project continued into the following year, new students had the same opportunity to 

complete the community environmental inventory and issue selection process. They also came to 

a consensus on continuing this project. They worked to develop protocols for data collection and 

then began to record and collect baseline data. (James Hutton Institute, 2011) Students used the 

iNaturalist (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/ths-rain-garden) app to collect information for 

our project, and also used the Midwest Invasive Species Information (MISIN) app (https://www.

misin.msu.edu/) to help identify and report native and invasive species they found in the different 

areas we investigated. The ArcGIS app (https://www.arcgis.com/features/apps/) enabled students to 

collect and enter real-time information about the vernal pools we studied into a state database. The 

information they learned and the data they collected during these experiences helped them understand more about wetlands and our watershed overall and helped contribute data to the body of 

information researchers use to notice new patterns and identify areas of concern.

Each year, students answered several open-ended survey questions before we started this class and 

again after the class was completed. For the 2018-19 school year, the survey showed that only 24% 

Figures 8 and 8a. High school students host 5th grade classes at learning stations

Photo credit: Holly Hereau
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© 2021 National Earth Science Teachers Association. All Rights Reserved.

Volume XXXVII, Issue 1

of student answers reflected a positive attitude about Participation in Environmental Stewardship 

and at the end of the class 53% of student answers reflected a positive attitude about Participation 

in Environmental Stewardship.

Figure 9. There was a dramatic increase in species diversity and abundance in a two-year time spa

Type of Data Data Collection 

Method

Results 

Fall-Spring of 2017-18

Results 

Fall-Spring of 2018-19

Plant 

Biodiversity

Quadrats

(student data 

was ambiguous 

regarding 

distribution and 

abundance)

Aquatic/Emergent: 

Abundant: Narrow leaf/hybrid 

cattail. Phragmite

Terrestrial: 

Patchy: (edges) perennial sow 

thistle, dandelions

Rare: Canada goldenrod, 

Horseweed, 

late goldenrod, common milkweed

Aquatic/Emergent: Abundant: Duckweed, narrow leaf/hybrid cattail

Patchy: Phragmites

Terrestrial: 

Abundant: Yellow nutsedge, Prickly Sow thistle, barnyard grass, 

Patchy: Devil’s beggar ticks, Pink weed, Horseweed, Interior Sandbar Willow, 

creeping thistle, Bull thistle, Ribwort Plantain, Greater plantain, shepherd’s 

purse, lady’s thumb, bittersweet nightshade, Canada goldenrod, field thistle, 

prickly lettuce, American pokeweed, cursed crowfoot, perennial sow thistle, 

late goldenrod, common milkweed, annual fleabane, Philadelphia fleabane, bog 

yellowcress

Installed and established: Swamp milkweed, Black eyed Susan, Scarlet bee balm, 

wild bergamot, Blue flag iris, Great blue lobelia, false nettle, golden alexander, 

rough blazing star, pickerelweed, cardinal flower

Aquatic Macroinvertebrates

D-nets, hand

picking from 

sampling pans 

and jars with mud 

and vegetation

Abundant: daphnia, mosquito 

larvae, midges, Ostracods (seed 

shrimp), Copepods, leeches, 

unidentified flatworms (Planaria)

Abundant: daphnia, mosquito larvae, midges, Ostracods (seed shrimp), Copepods, 

leeches, unidentified flatworms (Planaria)

Rare: water boatmen, predaceous diving beetle, dragonfly nymphs (Libellulidae), 

mayfly nymphs (Baetidae)

Terrestrial 

Invertebrates

Scouting, sweep 

nets, pitfall traps

Abundant: earthworms, mosquitos, 

midges,

Abundant: earthworms, mosquitos, midges,

Rare: Ground beetles, Field slugs, Yellow-legged Mud-dauber Wasp, Spotted Lad

Beetle, Hoverfly, Various unidentified ant species, various unidentified spiders, 

field cricket (Gryllus), Spur throated grasshopper, banded wing grasshopper, Horse 

Fly, eastern yellowjacket, Sowbugs, Unidentified beetle larvae/grubs, Monarch 

butterfly, cabbage white butterfly, common Whitetail dragonfly, Eastern forktail 

dragonfly, red admiral

Protists and 

Algae

Water sample 

observation using 

microscopes

Vorticella, amoeba, unidentified 

ciliates, paramecium (some of 

these were a result of my students 

extended study of the pond water 

succession into the winter.

Vorticella, amoeba, unidentified ciliates, paramecium (some of these were a result 

of my students extended study of the pond water succession into the winter.

Amphibians, 

Reptiles, Birds, 

and Mammals

Direct observation Red wing blackbirds, European 

starlings, Canada geese, rabbit, 

brown rat, field mice

Red wing blackbirds, European starlings, robins, Canada geese, Mallards, kildeer, 

green frogs, a garter snake, rabbits, brown rat, field mice, deer (reported by early 

morning custodian) painted turtle (the superintendent told me he “transplanted”

I did not observe the turtle and asked Brian to refrain from any other “rehoming” 

activities

Water quality Chemical tests 

and E. coli plate

High nutrient levels, high levels of 

harmful E. coli, high particulate

High nutrient levels, high levels of harmful E. coli, high particulates (no change

Measurements 

of area of 

runoff pond is 

catching

Direct 

measurement and 

Google Maps

Roof is 31.25m x 38.5m, Roo

often gathering area for Canada 

Geese, and some even build nests 

up there

Roof is 31.25 m x 38.5 m, Roof often gathering area for Canada Geese, and som

even build nests up there (no change)

Measurements 

of Retention 

area

Direct 

measurement

North side “dry side” – deepest 

part ranged from 10-18 cm in fall

measurements (dry for much of 

last spring/summer)

South side “pond side” – deepest 

part ranged from 42-49 cm in fall

measurements

North “dry side”– never dried throughout the entire spring before school ended. Still

25cm deep in the center. Water disappeared over summer for about a week before

heavy rains caused it to fill again. Standing water remained still all through the

summer and fall. There were no days this year where that side of the “pond” was dr

South “pond side” – Measurements in the spring were as high as 90 cm after the 

snow melt and now in August is back to around 60 cm

*Due to the removal of all aquatic emergent species there is less vegetation to absorb 

water. This is a temporary problem that will hopefully be solved as more natives are 

re-established. We did anticipate this, but due to the wetter than normal spring water 

was present all summer and prevented us from planting the species we intended.
Page 28 The Earth Scientist

© 2021 National Earth Science Teachers Association. All Rights Reserved.

Conclusion: Designing and Facilitating Units of Instruction 

with a Student-Chosen Phenomenon or Problem

The long-term success of our project will be determined from seasonal biodiversity 

audits and water quality monitoring results downstream of our site. Our initial inventory 

revealed very low species diversity, and the Phragmites provided habitat for an undesirable population of rats in addition to other invasive plants and animals. As the garden 

matures, we expect to see an increase in diversity and abundance of bees, butterflies, 

and other insects as well as amphibians, songbirds, and small mammals. Additionally, 

students hope to see the restored wetland used by students and members of the community of all ages for learning and enjoyment. The real success however is the level of 

engagement from students. Using a process that ensures each student’s voice is heard as 

they participate in the planning and decision-making increases students’ interest in this 

project and provides them a strong scaffold to broaden their environmental awareness 

and increase the likelihood to seek out other stewardship experiences.

References

Berland, L. K., Schwarz, C. V., Krist, C., Kenyon, L., Lo, A. S., & Reiser, B. J. (2015). Epistemologies 

in practice: Making scientific PRACTICES meaningful for students. Journal of Research in Science 

Teaching, 53(7), 1082-1112. doi:10.1002/tea.21257 

James Hutton Institute, (2011) Handbook of field sampling protocols for biodiversity. https://www.

hutton.ac.uk/sites/default/files/files/A%20Handbook%20of%20biodiversity%20monitoring%20

protocols(1).pdf

National Research Council. (2012). A framework for K-12 science education: Practices, crosscutting concepts, 

and core ideas. Washington DC: The National Academies Press.

Penuel, W. & Bell, P. (2016). Qualities of a Good Anchor Phenomenon for a Coherent Sequence of Science 

Lessons. STEM Teaching Tools Initiative, Institute for Science + Math Education. Seattle, WA: 

University of Washington. Retrieved from http://stemteachingtools.org/brief/28

Schwarz, C. V., Passmore, C., & Reiser, B. J. (2017). Helping students make sense of the world using next 

generation science and engineering practices. Arlington, VA: NSTA Press, National Science Teachers 

Association.

Reiser, B. J., Novak, M., & Fumagalli, M. (2015). NGSS storylines: How to construct coherent instruction 

sequences driven by phenomena and motivated by student questions. Illinois Science Education 

Conference 2015, Tinley Park, IL.

Reiser, B. J., Novak, M., & McGill, T. A. W. (2017). Coherence from the students’ perspective: Why the vision of 

the framework for K-12 science requires more than simply “combining” three dimensions of science learning.

Paper commissioned for the Board on Science Education workshop “Instructional materials for 

the Next Generation Science Standards”. Retrieved from http://sites.nationalacademies.org/cs/

groups/dbassesite/documents/webpage/dbasse_180270.pdf

Figure 10. Open-ended survey questions about student participation in environmental stewardshi

About the Author

Holly Hereau is a Science Educator 

at BSCS and an Adjunct Biology 

instructor at Macomb Community 

College in Warren, MI. She previously

taught high school biology, chemistry 

and environmental science in Redford, 

Michigan for 15 years and was a 

member of the Achieve Inc. Peer

Review Panel for Science. Hereau has

worked with educators across the 

country to support implementation 

of high-quality NGSS designed units

developed by the Next Generation 

Science Storylines and inquiry Hub 

teams in addition to working with 

those teams to develop Biology and 

Chemistry High School Storyline 

units. She holds a bachelor’s degree

in biology from Grand Valley State 

University and studied Entomology 

at Michigan State University before 

earning a master’s degree in 

secondary education at the University 

of Michigan. She was named the 2019

Michigan High School Teacher of the 

Year and a recipient of the Presidential 

Award for Excellence in Mathematics 

and Science Teaching in 2019. Holly

can be reached at hhereau@gmail

com and found on Twitter @hhereau 

2018-2019 Pre- and Post-Survey Comparison