By Ryan Nakamura
Staff Writer
Photo by Brian Kojima
The A.P. Environmental Science classes biked down to the Arroyo Seco park for its sixth annual field trip this past week. The trips to the Arroyo Seco stream began as a way for students to become more actively involved in the course. Students tested the water quality of the stream and then had to conclude whether it’s healthy for living organisms or not.
“The reason we teach this is to open people’s eyes up to science of nature and the idea of sustainability and awaken their own ideas and interests in these areas,” teacher Don Wielenga said.
The county of Los Angeles has also been involved with the project to determine if pollutants in the stream are decreasing or becoming more habitable. The statistics taken by the students are then passed down to the appropriate officials to decide the course of action to take. This can vary from either strict regulations to halt any dumping of hazardous material or close observation of how the stream is recovering.
“Fieldwork is a part of science, so this is a way to get in touch with some of the real work besides just the classroom and reading about it,” Wielenga said.
