LCM Students Surf Cyberways in High Tech Learning Environment

The County Record and the Penny Record: The Community Newspaper of the Greater Orange Area High Tech High, March 14, 2001

The information superhighway runs right along the banks of Little Cypress Bayou.

Thanks to a program called Cyberways and Waterways that merges online and field studies, student in Woody Cox's Environmental Systems class at Little Cypress-Mauriceville High School are riding the verge where technological innovation meets the great outdoors.

Cyberways and Waterways is a learning program that integrates technology into education by means of an interdisciplinary curriculum centered on Texas' rivers, creeks, coastlines and oceans, in this case, Little Cypress Bayou and the larger Sabine River Basin.

The program offers teachers and students an opportunity to study and electronically visualize the entire Texas watershed from school grounds.

Cyberways and Waterways started in Austin ISD in 1999 with a TIE (Technology Integration in Education) grant. In implementing that inaugural program, the project team became aware of a need for technology training and professional development for teachers to be able to integrate technology into everyday classroom activity, so the 2000 program included aggressive technology training for participating teachers.

Round Rock ISD, the fiscal agent for the 2000 grant, expanded the program to 22 districts sharing a second TIE grant of $2.9 million. Little Cypress-Mauriceville High School is the newest member of the program and the only one studying a waterway within the Sabine River watershed. Other schools in the program study watersheds from the Austin area south to the Rio Grande and east to the Sabine River. LCM is on the easternmost edge with Kountze and West Hardin its nearest participating neighbors.

Cox explained that the three water quality issues addressed by the C&W program include biodiversity, water quality and "garbology," a term coined by the C&W students.

"My juniors and senior collect data on water quality from Little Cypress Bayou, a subwatershed in the Sabine River watershed, where it crosses Hwy. 87, Bear Path, Little Cypress Drive bridge and Echo Road. They collect data from several water quality monitoring parameters including pH, air/water temperature, dissolved oxygen (D.O.) And conductivity," Cox said.

The students test for these parameters using water testing kits and water monitoring equipment provided by the Sabine River Authority.

"All of this equipment is used in the 'real world' by field biologists at SRA and by Lamar State College-Orange Environmental Technology students," Cox said.

Students then record the data on a form submitted to the TNRCC Volunteer Monitoring Program, "Texas Watch," and to the Sabine River Authority (SRA).

"My students have collected aquatic organisms (aquatic macroinvertebrates) ... as an introductory activity. They've collected mosquito larvae, midges, leeches, snails, damselflies, Hellgramites (toe-biters) and rifflebeetles," Cox recited a partial list of his classes' findings.

Macroinvertebrates indicate water quality condition, he explained. Some are tolerant of poor water conditions, some are intolerant.

Where water quality is poor, the intolerant species that cannot thrive in poor conditions will be scarce.

"If you find the intolerant species, that's a good sign," Cox said.

His students have found intolerant species, though the tolerant ones are more common.

However, poor water conditions do not necessarily indicate pollution, he explained. Low oxygen may be due to stagnant water.

A bayou, by definition, is different from a river in its rate of flow. A bayou is slower, sometimes sluggish.

"Little Cypress Bayou goes backwards in some instances - we call it negative flow," Cox said. "That's attributable to drought conditions we've experienced in recent years."

Water samples, Cox explained, give a snapshot of water conditions that day; bug samples are a long-term indicator.

In the lab, students enter their findings into the C&W data bank: water quality parameters, what macroinvertebrates are present, how many varieties, their tolerance.

The information they gather contributes one piece to a greater puzzle of data about the entire Sabine River Watershed, from waterways upriver to te immediate ecosystem and everything downstream. They can also access information from any watershed included in the program for a big-picture perspective.

"Water flows downhill to the gulf. Upstream life impacts bays, estuaries and the gulf," Cox explained.

"Of all the waterways in Texas, the Sabine River discharges the most water into the gulf, and Texas draws 40 percent of its seafood from its waters."

Cyberways and Waterways also provides on-line lessons from experts on issues pertaining to the environment. During one session, Dr. Quentin Dokken, assistant director of the center for Coastal Studies at Texas A&M University, lectured live from the Flower Gardens National Preserve, 10 miles out and 60 feet under the Gulf of Mexico.

Cox said the students participating in the Cyberways and Waterways program will leave his class with real-life skills.

"They can take Lamar-Orange environmental classes and come out with the capabilities to get a job," he said, noting that their experience using the technological equipment also contributes to their marketable skills.

C&W opportunities do not end with the last class day of the 2000-01 school year, Cox said. The grant allows him to continue with self-directed study to become more informed about his subject. It also pays for the expenses of keeping the school library open for four hours monthly so students without computer access at home may log some time on-line. Cox said other opportunities may be offered community-wide, thanks to grant funding this summer.

However, this year's Cyberways and Waterways rant will expire in August. Cox said he will seek funding to keep the program going at LCM.

The C&W consortium of Texas school districts, education partners, agencies, science, technology and business partners said "Cyberways and Waterways is designed to fulfill the goals of the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund and the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology in ensuring that teachers and students receive te training and resources necessary to enhance students' acquisition of knowledge through technology."

Cox put it another way: "I could teach this class (Environmental Systems) and never walk outside. But they would have to change its name and find someone else because our students must be exposed to the precious, natural resources we have in Southeast Texas."

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