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| ~ CROSSROADs ~ | A
commissioned report for the National Science Foundation re: ~Down @ the Crick~ or Field Science by Wireless written by Terry Casey ( aka etlady@postmark.net ) Tuesday, May 5, 1998 |
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2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * addendum * |
| ~Aftermath~ ...following "Just another day of life science" in Lewistown, Montana... Tuesday morning, May 5, 1998, green lights blinked and attendees at the first annual ~Emerging Wireless Technologies Conference~ held at George Washington University, Washington DC watched via Montana Public Television as students from Lewistown Junior High School demonstrated how they are using wireless technology to gather data ~Down @ the Crick~ and share that water quality information instantaneously with the world via the Internet...AND...Tuesday afternoon green lights were received for the Big Spring Creek Watershed Partnership's Stream Restoration and Trail project when Ted Hawn, National Resources Conservation Service, received news via land~line that the results of extensive testing revealed no PCBs present at Brewery Flats.  Highlights of Events following Tuesday, May 5, 1998 Lewistown News Argus - (May 6, 1998 - Front Page headline) "A stream of praise from Washington...Officials impressed with work of students" "There was a stream of praise about Lewistown coming out of a Washington D.C. conference Tuesday as the wireless field test on Spring Creek by local students was featured via a satellite uplink...Vice President Al Gore was scheduled to talk with the students, but it was announced Monday that he had other official business and would be unable to attend. Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) interacted with the students and their teacher instead, asking questions about the project funded by the National Science Foundation grant and interjecting his own praise for Lewistown and the school system...David Hughes said 'This is real science, real education, real environment, and it can be done by other scientists. They (Lewistown students) are the pioneers.'..." Lewistown On Line (http://www.lewistown.net) site counter ticking constantly as cyber traffic increases jumping from one front~door hit per day on April 27, 1998 to 23 hits per day by May 7, 1998...Visitor counter showed 264 visits on May 3, 1998...339 visits on May 5, 1998...404 visits on May 6, 1998...and 457 visits on May 7, 1998. Lewistown News Argus - (May 13, 1998) "PCB sampling results are good for restoration effort" "The results of the latest PCB samplings taken in the Brewery Flats area are in, and are cause for a sigh of relief for those working on the Brewery Flats Stream Restoration Project. The latest soil samplings taken last month show that of 22 soil samples taken from 14 different sites, PCBs were not detected in 21 of the 22 samples...said Mark Lere of Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, 'based on these results, we are planning to proceed with the stream re-naturalization project this summer and fall.'..." |
 "Life is an error-making and an error-correcting process, and nature in marking man's papers will grade him for wisdom as measured both by survival and by the quality of life of those who survive." -Jonas Salk |
| May 6-15 Life
Science teacher, Steve Paulson, and the students form a plan to
record crick data three times a day until the school year ends. Data is
recorded and exported to active files and refreshed http://www.lewistown.net/~library/Trailhead
Data gathering continues to be a day to day adventure. Flow meter problems
continue requiring daily trips to Spring Creek to clean the flow meter.
DO meter begins to show signs of drift requiring regular cleaning. Lewistown On Line (http://www.lewistown.net)...~Trailhead~ site counter still showing increased traffic at web site...Visitor counter (front~door hits) showed 507 visits on May 13, 1998 (one week after Lewistown featured @ Wireless Conference in Washington DC)...568 visits by May 20, 1998...582 visits by May 24, 1998...and 646 visits by June 6, 1998. May 16-31 - Flow meter problems continue. The impeller is raised up in the creek to facilitate "cleaner water" than the algae rich flow at 30cm. "Filter" is replaced on the DO sensor. May 20, 1998 - Missouri River Basin Association (MRBA) including the states of: Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming, and headquartered in Lewistown meets in Glasgow, Montana. Representatives from the Brewery Flats Stream Restoration & Trail project attend and information about the NSF wireless project is shared. Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks representatives express interest in developing more wireless/sensors technology for monitoring upstream and downstream water quality. May 29, 1998 - Lewistown Junior High Assembly includes a showing of the May 5th Globe Educational Field Science Wireless Project Real Time Demonstration video to the entire student body, teachers, staff, parents and various community residents. June 5, 1998 - School
year ends...Plans are made for one student (David Payne) to monitor
the sensors through the summer months. A new site is scouted for the relocation
of the Brewery Flats wireless/sensors unit in anticipation of the Army
Corp of Engineers moving into begin Big Spring Creek restoration project
during the summer months.
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