Inside earth science classrooms in high schools across Nebraska, students learn about groundwater’s importance, where it exists and its role in both human and environmental systems. Nebraska is one of only 23 states where groundwater is explicitly included in science content standards for grades 9-12. It can be difficult to bring this hidden resource to life in the classroom, but students can get hands-on experience with field-based labs and citizen science projects like the Know Your Well program.
Know Your Well is an educational program developed by the Nebraska Water Center, part of the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute. The program began in 2017 with funding from the Nebraska Environmental Trust as a series of one-year projects and has since expanded to a recurring program teachers return to year after year.
As a part of the Know Your Well program, students learn about basic hydrogeological principles and conduct research on domestic wells in and around their community. After their in-classroom training, students collect water samples from local wells, conduct a wellhead assessment and look for potential contaminant sources in land use features nearby that could explain any elevated results, such as septic tanks or cropland.
Students use commercially available water chemistry testing kits to investigate water quality in their classroom and send duplicate samples to the Water Sciences Lab at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln for professional laboratory testing. The lab data is used to create well owner reports provided to both the students and the well owners. Students get the opportunity to compare the testing kit and professional lab results and well owners receive accurate information about the quality of their well water.
Curriculum brings together community partner expertise
Through a recent grant with the Nebraska Department of Water, Environment, and Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Education program, the Know Your Well program has developed several guidance documents and lesson plans to make classroom implementation easier. The Teacher Guide provides an overarching look at the Know Your Well program and directs teachers to lesson plans and classroom prompts that are plug-and-play ready. The Regional Leader Guide is designed to support regional experts, such as Nebraska’s Natural Resources Districts (NRDs), local health departments and four-year colleges interested in implementing the Know Your Well program locally. Regional leaders are critical to Know Your Well as they can answer student questions with up-to-date locally based information as well as provide support to well owners who have questions about their lab results.
Know Your Well’s impact
Austen Hill, education programs supervisor at the Papio Missouri River NRD, is a Know Your Well regional leader and has facilitated the program in four high school classrooms within the district. Hill says he likes the program because the strong connection between all program participants means greater reach for groundwater education. “It’s kind of nice because you’re using your local community, using high school students to go out in their community with people that they know, testing groundwater and kind of get an idea. Because there are some people that have no idea that they could have heightened nitrates or other pollutants in their groundwater.”
Connecting well water quality creates hands-on learning opportunities
Teachers like Brandon Jacobitz at Adams Central High School in Hastings enjoy the opportunities for students to do field-based applied science. “Getting out of the classroom and going beyond the classroom is always a huge benefit,” Jacobitz says. “Learning how external factors affect well water quality has been a huge positive, from my standpoint, about the Know Your Well program.” Students also learn the importance of checking wells regularly, as well as connecting well water quality to health impacts and their prospective careers.
Next Steps
Know Your Well is continuing to connect with regional leaders and schools across Nebraska, providing resources to explore real-world science both in and outside of the classroom. View DWFI’s latest video to hear directly from Know Your Well program participants and visit the Know Your Well website to learn more or become involved.
