ABSTRACT/SUMMARY (30 lines):
The Communicating Data project engages secondary school teachers and students from both rural and urban
areas in Maine and New Hampshire as citizen scientists in collecting both private and public drinking water
samples for heavy metal analysis and communicating their findings with a goal of improving public health in their
communities. This new project will build on our current SEPA project which has a focus on arsenic in private
well water in rural communities. Based on what we are learning in our first project, that nearly all communities
have a mix of some public water systems as well as private wells, we will provide a more inclusive experience
for students by having them collect home drinking water samples for analysis, no matter what the source. We
will provide curriculum on drinking water systems so that students can identify their source of drinking water.
While our first project focused on arsenic in wells, many schools found that uranium and lead and other
contaminants were also issues that need attention. So, we will develop curriculum that addresses multiple
drinking water contaminants and provide training for teachers in these areas. We have already developed data
literacy tools and curriculum that will serve teachers and students in this new project. With these supports in
place, our new SEPA project will focus on helping students create data visualizations so that they can more
effectively communicate their findings to diverse audiences. We know from surveys of homeowners who
contributed well water samples in the first years of our current project, that the likelihood of mitigating arsenic in
drinking water was related to the extent of parent-child interactions in the home. To further support these
interactions, we will also focus on intergenerational learning. In guided focus sessions with parents, we will get
their input on developing appropriate at-home conversation prompts and sink-side activities to engage families
more actively in understanding the importance of healthy drinking water. We anticipate that this approach,
combined with our expanded focus on multiple contaminants in drinking water from homes dependent on either
private or public drinking water sources in either urban or rural environments will enable us to more broadly
disseminate our project and facilitate its replicability in other geographic areas.
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