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Champlin Grant Related Research Instructional Guides |
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We come from the three towns that make up the Chariho Regional School District and meet for the first time at the Chariho Middle School. We struggle to know more about each other and the villages from which we come. We want to be one student body that knows no boundaries, that learns from the history of our unique communities, and that is unified around the beauty that is Chariho…
We want to study our towns—its villages and waterways. And, we want to make a lasting and important contribution to Chariho and our state. Students at Chariho Middle School will undertake an important investigation. In our science classes, we will take responsibility for monitoring the quality of the water in the Wood River. We will monitor the main stem and feeder streams; students from Exeter-West Greenwich will monitor the headwaters. We will conduct a chemical analysis of DO, P, ph, NO3, NH4, bacteria, and TSS. We will also access temperature, stream flow, segment parameters-gradient, sinuosity, depth, and width. We will monitor the habitat by observing substrate composition, percent of aquatic cover, and percent of vegetative bank cover. We will work with University of Rhode Island students to assure quality data collection. At the same time, we will study the villages of Chariho; they transcend town lines. We will interview important individuals and examine noteworthy historical documents. We will study the history of these villages, examine the architecture of important buildings and visit graveyards. Members of local historical societies, local librarians, and others from the community and the University will work with us. Our study will help us to understand who we are and who we will become. Our study will be available at the local public libraries and historical societies. We want to work in the real world, in classrooms that know no walls. We want to use the technology used by scientists, archeologists, writers, and historians. We're disappointed by the extremely limited access we have to computers due to scheduled computer classes. We want the technology available to us at any time and at any place. To work in the real world, we need to take laptops with us to the Wood River, to the graveyards, to the villages, and on our interviews. We need laptops available to us in our science classes to chart and analyze trends, in our social studies classes to map historical sites, in our English classes to write oral histories, and in our math classes to study the probable impact of environmental changes. We need digital cameras to document for future generations our towns as they are now and were in the past. We need digital video cameras to record oral histories for integrated units of study. We want to work with current technology in every corner of our school and community. We want the vast resources of the Internet available to us at any time. We’ve learned that wireless technology can have a profound impact on our learning at Chariho Middle School. We will have the tools we need and be able to use them wherever we happen to be. We are Chariho Middle School. We are one student body from three distinct communities. We know each other and our communities well and we have much to offer. We will become part of a Junior Watershed Council. We will join the local historical societies. We will make presentations of our findings to the Chariho and Exeter-West Greenwich School Committees, to the local town councils, and to the Wood River Pawcatuck Watershed Association. Our study will be available to the public at the local libraries and historical societies and also through the internet. We will make predictions and help others to plan the future of our towns. We are the future; we want to contribute to it! (Written on behalf of the students of Chariho Middle School.) |
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