PARENT SESSION
Poster Session # 3: Ecological Education.

Monday, August 4 Presentation from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM. SITCC Exhibit Hall B.

The use of small watersheds as teaching tools.

Thomas, Carolyn^*,1, Pohlad, Bob^*,1, ¹ Ferrum College, Ferrum, Virginia, USA

ABSTRACT- Small watersheds make valuable tools for teaching in many different ecologically related courses. These watersheds can and should be local to your campus and give valuable hands on experiences to your students. Some of the upper level courses in which the Ferrum College, Ferrum Mountain Creek Watershed, has been used are Ecology, Hydrology, Wildlife and Forest Management, Field Botany, Invertebrate Zoology and Environmental Chemistry. The watershed has also been used for freshman and sophomore level courses such as General Biology, Plant Science and Environmental Issues. A methods manual has been developed for methods easily used in small watersheds in the mountains with detailed procedures and descriptions of simple equipment that can be purchased or constructed for use by students. This manual is online at a website developed for the Collaboration through Appalachian Watershed Studies (CAWS) project. Methods will be described including: 1) Leaf pack preparation and placement for studying leaf decomposition in streams, 2) Aquatic fungi population analysis, 3) Manual stream flow, 4) Stream chemical and physical parameters, and 5) Meiofauna population analysis. These methods were developed by a group of faculty at colleges in the Appalachian Mountains through two collaborative grant projects, Research Opportunities for Collaboration in the Appalachians (ROCA) and CAWS. Southern Appalachian watersheds at seven different small colleges were instrumented, data collected, and methods developed for the last two years. Weather and hydrologic data were collected and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping was done on these seven small watersheds with the help of undergraduate students. Data has been shared through a project web site (www.ferrum.edu/caws) for student study and learning purposes and training has occurred among the seven colleges participating at frequent workshops attended by faculty and students.

Key words: watershed, streams, teaching, methods