GROUND WATER EDUCATION AND TESTING PROGRAM REACHES OVER 150 STUDENTS, OSSIPEE NH

June 9, 2017    Published in General

Students from eight classrooms in six schools across the Ossipee Watershed participated in Ground Water Education through Water Evaluation and Testing (known by its acronym GET WET), facilitated by Green Mountain Conservation Group’s  Education Coordinator, Dr. Karen Deighan.

Sandwich Central School, Freedom Elementary School, Cornerstone Christian Academy, Ossipee Central School, K.A. Brett School and Molly Ockett Middle School all took part in this hands-on science based program that teaches local youth about groundwater and stratified drift aquifers.

GET WET provides students an opportunity to use the science they are learning in the classroom and apply it to their lives by testing their own well water.

Dr. Theresa Thornton founded GET WET specifically for rural areas that depend largely on private wells for drinking water. Students in the Ossipee Watershed learned how to collect samples of their well water following a protocol and then bringing it into the classroom to test their water for six parameters: pH, iron, conductivity, hardness, chloride and nitrates.

The program also helps students learn how to create a long-term database of groundwater quality data. When the testing was complete, students analyzed their data and found the latitude and longitude coordinates of their wells using Google Earth which allowed them to see their collective results in the form of graphs and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) maps.

Classroom teachers, paraprofessionals, Green Mountain Conservation Group staff and volunteers, including Noreen Downs and Maud Anderson helped guide students through these scientific procedures.

To learn more about GET WET or any of Green Mountain Conservation Group’s other educational programs, contact Karen Deighan at Green Mountain Conservation Group at 539-1859 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..”>education@gmcg.org. GET WET is partially funded through the Quimby Foundation and NHDES, Local Source Water Protection Grant funded through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Drinking Water State Revolving Fund.

Read more at the Conway Daily Sun:  http://www.conwaydailysun.com/community/6071-general/131711-ground-water-education-and-testing-program-reaches-over-150-students