Secondly, students do not have the equipment needed to heat the liquid during the testing procedure. Lastly, the test kit is very expensive compared to the inorganic phosphate only test kit. The Water Quality Index is a way to sum up the water quality story of a stream with one value, obtained from a calculated equation. Note that for the pH component of the WQI, the absolute value of the difference between the tested value of pH and 7.5 is multiplied by 8. The purpose of the multiplication factors in the WQI expression are to equate the effect of the different rangers of values likely for the different water quality parameters used.
Students collect the data for greater appreciation of the dynamics of waterways.
Teachers also use our data to teach statistical data analysis in their classes in biology, environmental science, ecology, earth science, and others. Collecting data provides students a real world, science experience not found with reading a book. Creek Connections functions as an extension of the normal classroom routine of textbook reading and lecture notes. Our goal is to teach and help students learn about the French Creek Watershed. Any computer connected to the World Wide Web can gain access our data.