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2009 Student Activities on Buck Creek

The Center for Civic and Urban Engagement has supported the work of two student interns on Buck Creek as a part of our "Renewing the Core and the Creek" initiative.

Kelly Shaw '11, a major in geology and minor in political science, is collecting baseline data on water qualityat each of the dam sites in order to augment the data being logged continuously along the project reach.  The parameters she is measuring include nitrates, phosphates, chlorides, and hardness.  Kelly is using a Hach DREL/2010 Advanced Water Quality Laboratory and the DR/2010 Spectrophotometer for her analyses.

Chad Rigsby '11, a major in biology, is studying stream macroinvertebrates upstream and downstream of each of the dam sites.  The objectives of his work is to understand the impact of the lowhead dams on the macroinvertebrate community.  For each lowhead dam, he is sampling the pooled area immediately upstream of the dam, an area further upstream that is unimpacted by the dam, characterized as the first riffle environment immediately upstream of the pooled area, and the downstream recovery riffle.  He is using OEPA standard operating procedures for qualitative sampling and analysis of aquatic organisms which will make data comparable to other streams in Ohio.  Chad's data will form a baseline dataset characterizing the condition of Beaver Creek and Buck Creek prior to lowhead dam modification or removal.

Student Interns Developed Material for City Cable Channel

The Center has organized three interns to work with the City of Springfield on improving their current cable channel. Among other duties, their main responsibility was to develop content for the channel. Read more about their experiences here.