High school students were fully immersed in freshwater learning during the Freshwater Summer Field Experience, funded by the Freshwater Collaborative. The 17 students came from 11 different Wisconsin counties, and one student traveled all the way from Colorado to participate.
The weeklong camp gives high school juniors the opportunity to explore western Wisconsin’s freshwater systems and learn about freshwater-related degree programs through the Universities of Wisconsin and potential careers.
Activities this year included:
- fish biology in the Little Niagara Creek at UW-Eau Claire
- beaver biology at Beaver Creek Reserve
- stream monitoring in Birch Creek and Galloway Creek in Menomonie (high schoolers worked with student researchers from the Red Cedar Watershed Monitoring project led by UW-Stout and also supported by the Freshwater Collaborative)
- stream monitoring in Kelly Creek in River Falls
- bog freshwater monitoring in Chippewa County Forest
- monitoring engineered Lake Wissota in Chippewa Falls
- touring the Eau Claire Wastewater Treatment Plant
- interacting with groundwater flow models
- presenting mini research projects
Faculty instructors were from UW-Eau Claire, UW-River Falls, and UW-Stout, and the mentoring team included two undergraduate student teaching assistants.
Learn more about our freshwater opportunities for high school students.