A local science club of middle-school students will investigate water-quality issues along the Genesee River starting Saturday, Sept. 18. These 15 Science STARS—Students Tackling Authentic and Relevant Science—will meet four times this fall with master’s students at the Margaret Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development and use hands-on activities for the real-life teaching of science.
The middle-schoolers will get instruction from Warner School master’s students taking Theory and Practice in Teaching and Learning Science, a course taught by Assistant Professor April Luehmann. On Sept. 18, both groups will meet for the first time and participate in the 19th annual International Coastal Cleanup in Genesee Valley Park. They will collect debris from the shoreline at Genesee Valley Park from 8:30 a.m. to noon.
At 1:30 p.m., they will ride the Sam Patch packet boat for a trip and lunch on the river. On board, they will practice using scientific equipment, such as probes, for collecting water samples and testing them in future investigations. Follow-up work will take place at the Warner School on the University of Rochester’s River Campus.
The Rochester Museum & Science Center is collaborating on the Science STARS program and already has cited these middle-school students as “Young Visionaries” after participating in science programs at the museum.
Dates for other club activities are Monday, Oct. 11; and Saturdays, Oct. 16 and Oct. 30.