Holley students receive grant
to study soil and water quality

A $10,000 Toyota Tapestry Grant is going to make it possible for hundreds of Holley science students to be involved in an exciting hands-on project entitled "A Canal Runs Through It." In this project, elementary, junior and senior high students will investigate water and soil quality issues and their impact on local waterways. Holley is one of 50 schools in the nation to receive the grant.

The project will pilot this spring with the Honors Earth Science class whose job it will be to gather macro invertebrate samples (the larval stages of some insects). The bulk of the project will take place in the fall when the Environmental Science students will complete eight specific modules designed to evaluate their local watershed, Sandy Creek in the Holley Village Park.

Daniel Goodwin, the science teacher who wrote the grant proposal with the help of High School Principal Michael Gilbert, credits the development of the modules to Joseph Makarewicz, professor and chairman of the Department of Environmental Sciences and Biology at SUNY Brockport. The modules will involve establishing a baseline for water quality, mapping the stream, and identifying sources of pollution. Results and data collected will be submitted to the Water Education Collaborative's Community Water Watch Database and will be posted on the district Web site at www.holleycsd.org.

Seventh-grade classes will continue to collect macro invertebrates as part of the science unit for which they must classify organisms. Fifth-graders will research plant types that reduce erosion and second-grade classes will be involved in growing the plants. Then together with the older students, they will establish the plants along the stream beds.

The project will culminate in the spring of 2005 with students completing a ninth module where they present their findings in a mock community trial. Students will be representing groups within a community that have a stake in the outcomes of any environmental analysis.

The grant will fund equipment for students to use for the project and in years to come, including a ground water motion simulator that shows how toxins and pollution can move through water.