Watersheds are inherently interdisciplinary-they are crucibles of human activity. Social, economic, and political concerns are played out in land use decisions, and in decisions that affect water quality and quantity. When students and teachers begin to look at watersheds in this way they are taking an ecosystem approach which is the backbone of the RAP process. In order to build an effective citizenry in the Rouge watershed, these understandings and skills need to be nurtured. In addition, these grades also sample for benthic macroinvertebrates and apply diversity and tolerance indices.
Aesthetic surveys are part of all grades.
See Figure 1 for an example of the sequence of science activities from elementary through high school. Sequence of science activities in the REP, elementary through high school. Although the core monitoring program occurs in May, teacher and student training occurs throughout the school year. Along with teacher training, classes are held at local universities to train students to become resource assistants to new teachers to the program. These trained university students work for two weeks every day at schools during the core monitoring effort.