Centralia College will initiate a six-week, commuter, multidisciplinary Young Scholars project in the Physical and Life Sciences which will offer science enrichment activities for 25 students entering grade 11. The goal is to provide an experiential learning program for participants through a water quality research project. Project activities will center on a study of Salzer Creek, a tributary of the Chehalis River in Southwest Washington state. Students will calculate water quality, analyze soil samples, test samples of plants and benthic macroinvertebrates, and conduct stream flow analysis. Student research will yield data to be used in local water quality assessments for the Chehalis River Basin Council and to be entered in an international ecology data base.
