Directions

Directions for completing the Clean Watersheds project.

**1. Join Wikispaces.**
1a. Open your Internet browser. 1b. Go to Wikispaces - http://www.wikispaces.com 1c. Pick a username. My suggestion is to use your school email Username: ex. tcooper66. 1d. Set your password. My suggestion is to use your school password: ex. betsy1022 1e. Enter your email address. My suggestion is to use your school email address, or to use a Gmail account. 1f. You do not need to create a space, as asked in question #4 on Wikispaces. You are going to be joining our project space in the next set of directions. 1g. Click "Join".

If you would like to watch a screencast of how this is done, you can find a link to it on the "Tutorials" page of our parent site, The Networked Learner.

**2. Join the Clean Watersheds project space.**
2a. In the search string on the homepage you see after you join, type in "cleanwatersheds". 2b. Click on the link for the site. 2c. If this doesn't work for some reason, type the site URL in the browser's address bar: http://cleanwatersheds.wikispaces.com 2d. Click "Join this Space" in the left-hand sidebar. 2e. Send the project coordinator a short message letting them know who you are where you teach. 2f. Give the project coordinator at least 24 hours to approve your membership. 2g. Once you are a member, you can post information to the site.

3. Email the project coordinator your intent to participate and your school information.
3a. Email the coordinator (Thomas Cooper) at: thomas.cooper@thewalkerschool.org 3b. Include your school information: School Name; School Address; School Website; School Contact; Contact Email; Contact Phone; Course Name; Watershed Under Study; and Proposed Testing Date, Number of Licenses Needed (typically 21). 3c. Post this information to the "Participating Schools" page.

//Remember: Each school is typically given 21 licenses; 20 for a school lab and one for the teacher's computer, either in the lab or at home. If you need less or more licenses, please let us know. We will try to accommodate you.//

4. Create a class page. (optional)
Each participating school has been given a page where they can upload information about their school and/or class. Creating a page is a great way for other schools to get to know something about your school and your class. It helps to building an online community of trust between us. You can access your page on the "Participationg Schools" page by clicking on the link for your school.

//Remember: Do not put up information about students that might compromise their personal security. It is your responsibility to ask administrators, students and parents at your school what your school's Internet policies are and what you can post to the web. It is always a good idea to develop an informed consent document which all parties should sign. Informed consent documents briefly describe the project, inform all involved parties what the information will be used for, and where the information will be stored.//

5. Download the Google Earth software onto your lab's computers and register it:
5a. Open your internet browser. 5b. Copy and paste the following URL into the browsers address bar and then hit enter. [|http://earth.google.com] 5c. Click "Download Earth 5.0" 5d. The software should start to install automatically.

//Remember: This year we are encouraging participating schools to use the new free version of Google Earth. The new version (Earth 5.0) has all of the functionality you will need to complete the project, including working with GPS devices and animating tours. However, we do have a few Google Earth Pro licenses available for those schools who work with GIS shape files on a regular basis and would like to compare the functionality of ArcGIS with Google Earth Pro. If you would like a lab license of Pro, please contact the project coordinator (Thomas Cooper at:// ////thomas.cooper@thewalkerschool.org//// //) to obtain your Google Earth Pro licenses. The software needs to be loaded on each computer. Keys are good for 1 year from the install date. If a computer has to be reimaged, the key is no longer any good. You will need to download another one. Please notify me before you try to download an extra key, so I can keep track of it under my grant.//

**6. Learn how to use the Google Earth Pro software.**
You can find an embedded PDF here that will walk you through how to use Google Earth for this project. Also, a number of screencasts have been created to help you learn to use Google Earth. These screencasts can be found at this site on the "Tutorials" page. New this year (2009) is our monthly live tutorials in our Elluminate room. The dates and times for these sessions are posted in the calendar along with a link to the room under event details.

**7. Choose your tests sites.**
Google Earth Pro's database can be used to research the location of construction sites, paper plants, concrete plants, coal plants, pig and chicken farms, golf courses, metal fabrication facilities, recycling plants, nuclear power plants, and other industries that might be involved in polluting nearby streams that flow into your area's watershed. This data can be saved along with your data and exported as a layer which can be shared with others. You can find a screencasts on how to do this on the "Tutorials" page.

**8. Complete your water testing.**
In order to maintain reliability between test sites, we encourage all participating schools to use one of the LaMotte water test kits. Acceptable kits include the LaMotte [|Green Water] test kit, the LaMotte [|Green Estuary] test kit, or the LaMotte [|Complete Water Monitoring] test kit. These kits can be ordered directly from [|LaMotte], or a supply company, such as [|Carolina Biological Supply]. I have created a simple water data sheet that you can print out and give to your students; a copy can be downloaded on the documents page. Because some schools have invensted in different water testing kits, we have added forms for each general type of kit. Please make sure to enter your data in the appropriate form.

//Remember: You also might want to bring a **digital camera** and take a picture of the test area and students doing the water sampling. Putting up a picture of the site will allow other participating schools to see the enviornmental conditions of the location. If you have a **GPS unit**, you can use it to take the coordinates of the site and upload the data to Google Earth Pro.//

**9. Enter your water data in our Google Form**
Once you collect your data you can use our Google Clean Watersheds form to enter your information. You can view the form on theschool Water Data page. Once you submit your data you may view it and the data posted by other participating schools at: [|http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p vHCKCuYxA1zMQ25rlYcuHQ]. If you would like access to the form in order to download it, you will need to sign up for a Google Docs account and contact the project coordinator (Thomas Cooper: coopert@thewalkerschool.org) so that he can share the form with you.

**10. Join our network on Ning (optional).**
We have created a group called Clean Watersheds on our social networking site, [|GoAPES Ning]. After joining you can upload pictures of your class, start a blog, and/or have your students participate in the various threaded discussion for this project.

11. Upload your pictures.
You will need to upload any images you took during the project to the Interent, in order to embed them in your placemark. You can do this by joining the [|GoAPES Ning] group and uploading them there, under the Clean Watersheds group, or starting an account for your class on a photosharing site like [|Flickr] or [|Photobucket]. Our network is private, so you might want to consider it over the others.

12. **Create a layer with your water data.**
A layer consist of one or more placemarks containing information about your field trip and test site. Schools typically create a placemark containing observations of the area surrounding the test site and its probable effects on the test data, their water test data from one of our approved kits (see above), and a picture of the test site and students conducting tetss. You are welcome to use our placemark template, which can be found on the "Documents" page, or create one on your own. A number of screencasts have been created to help you learn to use Google Earth and to create placemarks. These screencasts can be found at this site on the "Tutorials" page. If you use the project template (which we prefer to maintain a common theme), we have provided you a guide to explain some of the basic XHTML used in the template and show you where to substitute our placeholder text. and images with your own information. Each placemark should however use the specialized icon for this project, which can also be found on the documents page. me Also, please create a folder with your school name, location, and time of year (ex. The Walker School, Marietta, GA - Spring 2009), then put any placemarks you created in that folder before exporting your layer. This will make it easier for us to compile the composite layer, which will consist of a series of school folders with any placemarks you created inside of those folders.





//Remember: If you don't have a geek in your classroom to help you out, you can always email me and one of my APES students will upload the data for your school.//

**13. Upload your layer to the school data page.**
Once you have created your layer in Google Earth Pro, upload it to the school data page. To do this follow these directions:

1. Click on the school's layer page. 2. Click "Edit This Page" in the upper right-hand corner. A tool bar will appear at the top of the page. 3. Click on the "image" button right before the TV button. This button if for uploading pictures and documents. 4. Click on "browse" button in the bottom right corner of the dialog box that appeared when you clicked on the "image" button. 5. Find the Google Earth layer file you created in Step 9 on your desktop computer. 6. Click on it and then click "upload" button. The file will be uploaded to the wiki. You should see it highlighted in yellow for a few seconds after it is uploaded. 7. Click on the page where you want the file to be placed. 8. Double click on the file in the upload dialog box; it will appear where you clicked on the page. If it is not where you want it, you can highlight the code and cut and paste it where you want it. 9. Clock "Save" button in the tool bar to save the edits to the page you were working on. 10. Review the information you put on the data page and make any necessary edits.

**14. Notify the project coordinator that you need your data added to the composite layer.**
After you upload your layer to the data page, send an email to the project coordinator (Thomas Cooper at coopert@thewalkerschool.org). I will add your information to the composite layer and repost it to the main page.

15. Use the composite layer to analyze the data.
Sometime after March 22nd, we hope that schools will use this data to analyze national tends related to the health of our watersheds. I thought it might be a good project for after the AP Test in May. Students could use this data to create a PowerPoint presentation, make a video, or write a paper. Any of these items can also be embedded into a placemark and posted to our composite layer. If you have any ideas about how we should use this data, feel free to add your ideas to the discussion tab of the data page. We plan on having a Skype conservation with any school interested in discussing how to use this data on Thursday, March 22nd, 2009. See the calander page for suggested completion dates, and Skype schedule.