Water Quality Study

Sixth grade students have been working on a computer simulation program in science.  The program, ECOMUVE, has been developed at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and uses an immersive virtual environment to teach students about ecosystems and causal patterns.  The goal of the project is to help students develop a deeper understanding of ecosystems by using a 3-D virtual world that has a look and feel similar to a videogame.  The world recreates authentic ecological settings within which students explore and collect information.

Students used this program to identify organisms that might live in and around a pond.  The field guide gave hints on where organisms could be found.  Once found, students took a picture of the organisms and the picture was sent to the field guide and was used as evidence that the student was successful in finding the habitat of the organism.

During the second week of the project, students used the measurement tools to collect water quality data over a three, month period of time.  Toward the end of the third month, there was a large fish kill of the large mouth bass and the bluegill.  Students had to develop a theory on why the fish died and support the theory with data they had collected over amounts of dissolved oxygen, phosphates, nitrates, and microscopic organisms that were found in the water.  

Students then used Garage Band software to create a sound file explaining their theory, the results of their data collection, and a solution to the problem. 

Students were able to relate the simulation to a real life water quality problem that we have in Kansas. They learned ways to prevent the pollution and ways that the pollution can be filtered out of the water with grass filter strips.