Winter Stream Team Activities

Even with the cold days of winter the Gallatin H S Stream Team has found activities to keep them busy. Almost every Wednesday four or five students collect water quality data on the school’s pond and then the data is sent to the GLOBE network by internet.

The school’s pond is very low due to a lack of rain fall and snow this winter. There is a lot of algae floating on the pond. The chemical tests still show the oxygen content is okay for fish but the number of fish or their health is unknown since the team only tests the pond’s chemistry.

The Stream Team has held a couple of meetings to discuss activities and talk about the profit from T-Shirt sales, which they use for canoe trips etc. Our team won a pizza party by the Stream Team Organization (DNR, MDC, and Conservation Federation). About 35 students attended during the two seminars during the school day on February 19. Sheery Fischer and an associate provided the pizzas, sodas and snacks for the students.

The Stream Team was not able to run tests on the Grand River in January and February due to bad weather on the Sundays they had planned to run the tests. They did run water chemistry tests on March 23 at their site on the Grand River near Jamison. They tested the water at a riffle where the old bridge used to be on the Grand River just outside of Jameson.

The oxygen content was 11 ppm which at the river’s temperature of 11 degrees Celsius is 105 %. All other chemicals were low and with in safe range.

The river’s flow rate was accessed through the internet for the Wabash site near Gallatin, since it is flowing slow enough to make measurements at the team’s site. It currently flows at 60 cubic feet per second.

While at the site the members picked up about a dozen stream team bags of trash. The Stream Team reminds those who use this area to fish or camp to please take trash out with you to keep the area nice for others to use.

The four students, Adam Strein, Chris Barns, Jacob Gardner, and Heather Berry, along with Mr. Steigerwalt also stopped at the Wabash Access and picked up another five bags of trash. The High School Stream Team adopted the Wabash access last summer and try to clean up trash there each month.

Upcoming events will include water tests on the school pond each Wednesday, water tests on the Grand once during April and once in May. The annual four day trip to the Current River will be May 27-30, for those students with the most activity points. The team may do the two day float on the Jack’s Fork. The possibility of a trip to the Niangua river during the spring is also a possibility.

Mr. Steigerwalt has a summer school class related to Stream Team, called Environmental Science on June 3-20. Any student grade 9-12 in the Gallatin Schools can sign up for Environmental Science I – Water Quality.

In that class students work on many hands-on activities to learn about water quality and watersheds. Most of the time is spent on collecting water quality information on a dozen streams that flow into the Grand River and a two day float/camp to collect water quality information on the Grand.

The last week, for five days, the students will travel to Southern Missouri and float/camp on the Current River for three days collecting water quality information. A written comparison of the two rivers is collected at the end of the class.

The student can receive a half credit in science upon completion of this class. This year the school is also offering Environmental Science II – Aquatic Studies for a half credit in science, so that after two summers the student could get one full years credit in science.

The second summer involves participating in all the first summer’s activities and in addition doing an individual study of an aquatic site on their own property or property they have access to. Interested students should contact Mr. Steigerwalt or the Gallatin School.