A River Runs Through This Classroom

Dirty, brown toilet water. That's how some Grade 11 biology students described the North Saskatchewan River. But after rafting 11 km downstream and testing the water quality along the way, they've changed their minds.

"I thought it would be really gross and you couldn't go swimming," said 17 year-old Kylie Kelemen.

"I thought the water would be really dirty and disgusting," said Jeffery Nehajowich, 16.

Kylie and Jeffery were two of 21 students from Louis St. Laurent Catholic Junior/Senior High School participating in the RiverWatch floating laboratory. Through RiverWatch, a science field trip managed by Beyond Books Institute of Alberta, students paddle two large rubber rafts downstream to gravel bars and banks along the river and conduct water quality tests.

Neil Hosler, a RiverWatch guide, says the program provides good experience to students. "They're actually doing the test, seeing what's in the water and seeing the ecosystem."

Being on the water and floating down the river valley are new experiences for most kids. "The rafts make it easy. It's a comfortable way to float down the river. We can carry all our gear and equipment," Hosler said. "It's like a big floating school bus."

Hosler added that the experience is heightened because students have access to and can see the whole river - unlike field trips in a school bus. "The problem with a bus trip is that you get a little picture of the river, not the whole river," he said.

Before venturing out on two blue rafts and clad in rubber boots and yellow life jackets, students were taught water safety. Embarking from Dawson park, the students paddled to gravel bars to test things like the water's acidity level and cloudiness. They also stopped at the Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant for a tour.

Downstream from the plant's outflow valve, students tested the water again and found it contained more phosphates (found in some detergents) and ammonium nitrates (found in urine) than upstream. According to Hosler, the plant aims to be able to cleanse the water of 100% of the phosphates by the year 2005. Still, he says, people are the problem polluters and the plant is only trying to repair damage already done.

Sylvia Farrow, the class's science teacher, said RiverWatch complemented what the students learn in school. "They actually get to see and do what we talk about in class," she said. "It's learning in a very different way than in the classroom and you need both ways of learning."

Michelle Kennedy, 16, said the trip was worthwhile. "It was fun. It's a day out of the school and you learn more than sitting in class for an hour and a half," Kennedy said. "The river is a lot cleaner than I thought and they do a lot more to make sure it's clean than I thought. It doesn't smell and I'm not repulsed by it any more.