Teacher's Support

Measuring turbidity with a Secchi disk.

Student Training in Aquatic Research enables your students to create and implement environmental research projects related to the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed. Because STAR focuses on the entire research process--from stating the research question to publishing the results--STAR is not just a one-day field trip. Teachers will work closely with STAR staff to adjust the program to fit their classroom needs.

Each school's participation in the STAR program may vary to accommodate teacher and students' wishes and needs. Although we encourage everyone in a classroom to participate in STAR, it is not a requirement that the entire class participates.

In general, the STAR program will include the following steps:

Preparation

• Educators and SERC staff discuss project goals and how STAR can be best aligned with a school's current curricula for science, math, language arts, and civics and government.
• The STAR program provides an introduction to basic and environmental research methods, research at SERC, Chesapeake Bay ecology, and watershed dynamics.

Student Research Projects

• Educators and students, with the help of SERC staff, discuss potential student research topics. Students will be encouraged to develop research projects that investigate basic watershed and estuarine processes related to the Chesapeake Bay.
• Students write and submit research proposals, including detailed sampling plans, to their instructors and STAR staff for approval.
• Students collect field data and do laboratory analysis (if needed).
• Students analyze their data and write a research report.

Dissemination of results

• A special STAR Symposium in the spring will highlight the students' work.
• Student work will be collected a published in a Symposium Proceedings which will be posted online at Student Publications and distributed to STAR partners and collaborators.
• Students present work at conferences and in journals. STAR staff assists students in finding ways to publish their work.
• STAR staff also disseminates appropriate student-collected data sets to water quality or biological monitoring databases.