Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring
Educational Programs and Training
New England Extension volunteer water quality monitoring programs often provide
internships or jobs to undergraduate or graduate students at their affiliated Land
Grant University. These students get hands-on experience in water quality monitoring
from sampling to analysis to data entry and analysis.
Examples:
The University of Rhode Island (URI) Watershed Watch Program
annually sponsors two to three students in the
URI Coastal Fellows Program
,
an experiential learning program that enables students to engage in research and Extension efforts.
The University of Vermont Watershed Alliance Program
integrates undergraduate students into their program as resource assistants. These students
undergo approximately 10 hours of water quality monitoring training with the Watershed Alliance
so they can implement the program’s curriculum into middle schools and
high schools and help the teachers to facilitate monitoring. These students obtain
first hand knowledge of environmental education and water resources.
Since 2003, a social sciences graduate student researcher at the UVM Rubenstein
School of Environmental and Natural Resources has received funding to analyze student collected
survey data as part of a residential pollution prevention education and adoption in urbanized
watersheds activity.