Photo Credit: Virginia Small
More than 400 students, teachers, and volunteers from six local schools will take part in the Milwaukee Waters Investigation Project (MWI) on Tuesday, May 2. This year-long project aims to bring various organizations together to collaborate on designing and contributing their knowledge, resources, and time to promote water stewardship and to inspire future water-related career paths.
The students will visit five Lake Michigan beaches and two sites on the Milwaukee River to conduct water quality testing, a cleanup, microplastic sampling, and a weather and habitat survey. Participating schools include Brown Deer Middle School, Deer Creek Intermediate School, Glen Hills Middle School, Lake Bluff Elementary School, Pathways High, and St. Robert School. Each school will visit a different site, including Atwater Beach, Bradford Beach, Badger Meter Park, Grant Park Beach, Schlitz Audubon Nature Center, Doctor's Park, and Hubbard Park on the Milwaukee River.
"We're excited for the opportunity to connect students with ideas that inspire future stewards of our water resources and water-related career paths," remarked Joost Allard from Learn Deep Milwaukee. The students will upload their data to EarthEcho International's and Milwaukee Riverkeeper's databases, and analyze and compare data from all local investigation sites. Collected data and students' reflections on the project will also be shared with public officials and the community on the MWI StoryMap website.
The Wisconsin Coastal Management Program provided a grant to Learn Deep Milwaukee, Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful (KGMB), and Freshwater Tool Kit.org in July 2022 to create this investigation project with community partners. The primary project goals are supporting teachers and students, collaboratively creating real-world and community engaged field experiences, and connecting students to their local waterways. Additional funding for microplastics education and water quality kits was received from the Center for Great Lakes Literacy and Xylem Co.
