Champaign students about water-related issues
Andrea Lynn, Humanities Editor
217-333-2177; andreal@illinois.edu
4/20/2005
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Geography students from Champaign Unit 4 schools are attending college – for a day, anyway.
On Friday (April 22), the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will host a field trip for the students as a way to introduce them “to a wide range of issues relating to water systems and human interaction with water as part of our environment,” said Bruce Rhoads, the head of the U. of I. geography department, a sponsor of the event.
Six geography classes with a total enrollment of about 100 students from Centennial and Central high schools will participate.
Through a series of activities, the students will explore aspects of water quality, geomorphology, hydraulic engineering and water system engineering in Champaign and Urbana. They also will learn about various technologies used to monitor and study water.
Students will visit the university’s Hydrosystems Laboratory to find out how engineers study water flow. They also will test water quality in Boneyard Creek, participate in a treasure hunt using Global Positioning System devices and use a stream table and a geographic information system to study river geomorphology.
The field trip is a cooperative effort of the U. of I. GK-12 Program, the WaterCampws Laboratory, the Center for Water as a Complex Environmental System and the departments of geography and civil and environmental engineering.
For more information, contact Rhoads at 217-333-1322.
