Shannon Rosenkrans
Payson Seymour High School
srosenkrans@cusd1.org

Not by my River!


Student Page

Introduction 

“Every day I drive home and I go past the hog farm and I just know that it is too close to the river and our water is being polluted” states Payson, Illinois citizen Rachel Fergus.  She lives just a mile from a large hog farm located next to the Mississippi River.

“Complain, complain, complain, that seems these days all I hear is negative comments from my neighbors.  I am doing everything according to the state regulations, what more do these people want?” said Edwin Wood.

Fergus and Wood are both prominent figures in the community and the town is conflicted over this issue.

Mayor Roberta Goodwin does not want the town to continue to become divided over the issue and has decided to set up mediation meetings between Fergus and Wood.

“Since these two neighbors are making this a town issue, someone needs to step in and help to get this resolved,” said Goodwin.  We need to look at this from all angles and figure out the best way to deal with the issue to leave everyone feeling better about this. In order to accomplish this goal, I am going to have some specialists do some research into the water quality and how the hog farm may or may not be affecting our river, so that we can make some quality decisions on this issue.”

Your “job” in this WebQuest will be to investigate this issue, and report to the Mayor your findings and suggestions. You will use various web-based resources as well as some laboratory data to investigate and finalize your report.

Task

The town of Payson is concerned about hog farming too close to the Mississippi river and the possibility of contamination of the water. The mayor of Payson has hired you as a consulting team and would like a power point presentation presented to the town on this issue.

You and your team will:

You will find some information on the links provided and they will help you to complete the worksheets, but you are also to find other information on your own, and not to just rely upon the few links I have given you in this section. You will need to do some of your own research.  Remember to use quality internet sources.

A few other websites you may find useful include:

Illinois Fact Sheet

National Pork Producers Council

Farm Census Data

 

Process

1.      You will form groups of 2 or 3 to a team.

2.      As individuals you are responsible for doing each worksheet and lab and turning in your own work.  These are not for group points.

3.      Together you will investigate the different issues.

4.      You are to develop a 10-minute PowerPoint presentation with a minimum of 20 slides. These slides are to include the following:

5.      An introduction slide, with your group member’s names and a title.

6.      A credits slide with all bibliographic information included.

7.      Data collected in the labs.

8.      Describe the properties of water.

9.      Describe what surface and ground water are, and how they occur.

10.  Describe the geological features of the Mississippi river basin.

11.  Discuss water quality and the regulations for drinking water.

12.  Discuss water quality and regulations for wastewater.

13.  Describe wastewater issues and possible contaminants

14.  Describe a containment lagoon

15.  Discuss alternative uses for containment lagoon wastes

16.  Discuss the federal and state regulations for hog farming

17.  Describe and defend your position.  Your position should support whether or not the hog lagoon is polluting the Mississippi river.

 

Evaluation

You will receive individual grades on all worksheets and labs that are completed with this WebQuest.  You will receive a group grade for the PowerPoint presentation.  Keep all members of your group working on this, so that you are not the one creating everything and then crying about it to me later.  This WILL be a group grade.

The following rubric is based solely on the PowerPoint presentation.  Each worksheet and lab will be graded as all other classroom work.

PowerPoint Rubric

Group members name_______________________________

Group title _______________________________________

Presentation parts                                                 Points possible          Points earned

1.      Title page                                                              5                     _________

2.      Water lab 1 data                                                     5                     _________

3.      Water lab 2 data                                                     5                     _________

4.      Water lab 3 data                                                     5                     _________

5.      Properties of water                                                 7                     _________

6.      Surface water description                                        7                     _________

7.      Ground water description                                           7                     _________

8.      Geological features of Mississippi river basin                7                     _________

9.      Water quality regulations for drinking water                 8                     _________

10.  Water quality regulations for wastewater                     8                     _________

11.  Water contaminants                                                  7                     _________

12.  Containment lagoon description                                  10                     _________

13.  Alternative uses for lagoon wastes                              10                     _________

14.  Federal regulations on hog farming                              7                     _________

15.  State regulations on hog farming                                7                    _________

16.  Position statement                                                    10                     _________

17.  Defense of position is clearly expressed                       10                     _________

18.  Minimum of 10 pictures related to the topic                 10                     _________

19.  Minimum of 10 minute presentation                            5                     _________

20.  Bibliography/credits page                                           10                     _________

21.  No spelling or grammar errors                                    5                     _________

22.  Clean, legible slides                                                    5                     _________

23.  No distracting “extras”                                                5                     _________

24.  Creativity bonus points                                                5                     _________

Total possible points on project                                       170                    __________

 

Conclusion

By the end of this WebQuest, you should have an understanding of water quality and the impact hog farming may have upon water quality.  You will also have a better understanding of laws impacting farming and you will have taken a position on what should be done in your area.

Can you think of any other agricultural issues in our community that will have a direct positive or negative impact on our lives?

Credits

Sources of Pictures

http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/undergrad/ag_eng_info.htm

 

For a complete listing of all websites in this WebQuest, see the teacher’s page.

 

I would also like to say Thank you to all the instructors, graduate students and coordinators of WaterCAMPWS and Lynn Burdick and Rae Clementz from the Office of Educational Technology at the University of Illinois.