Onalaska High School students measure the water levels at Ghreer Creek above Carlisle Lake on Friday morning in Onalaska.
Onalaska High School students Colee Masciola, left, and Riley Dolan measure the water levels at Ghreer Creek above Carlisle Lake on Friday morning in Onalaska.
One of three groups of Onalaska High School students take water samples at Ghreer Creek above Carlisle Lake on Friday morning in Onalaska.
There are big plans for Carlisle Lake, and students of Onalaska High School are beginning to play an active role in its reformation.
The Onalaska High School Science Club has earned a $7,400 grant from TransAlta to establish a water quality team to do regular rounds of water quality tests in the lake and Ghreer Creek.
“This is real hands-on experience using the latest technology in water quality testing in the environmental science field,” said Onalaska High teacher and Science Club adviser Johnny Garcia. “It ties in so closely with school to work that the equipment they’re using is the equipment TransAlta uses for their own water quality testing.”
Short for TransAlta Community Transformers, the TACT grant is given to nonprofits and groups that have demonstrable contributions and impacts to the longterm sustainability on the local level.
Currently, some students from Onalaska high have been meeting with volunteers from TransAlta at the lake and are learning how to do water testing two days per month. Now that the school has money to buy its own equipment, TransAlta employees will continue to work with them until they are proficient enough to do it on their own, at which point students will test the waters on a monthly basis.
The data collected by the students will be used by the state and the Onalaska Alliance as they work to put a fish passage into the lake. The grant was written by the science club’s grant writing team, which consists of 10 students and three teachers. Students are getting the benefit of understanding the grant writing process and the teachers involved are providing the vision of where the club and the science program at the school are going.
As Onalaska High keeps up with the national education system’s shift to emphasize science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), Onalaska High students are applying for grants to fund projects in the school’s STEM program, the water quality program and the development of Carlisle Lake into the Onalaska Educational Park System.
“(The STEM) class is going to be a project based class that the community or the school can use,” said Garcia. “The class will happen but we need extra funding.”
The STEM class will be made of two class periods and taught by three teachers. The program plans to build a variety of projects, including a pavilion lake.
The science club has applied for three grants so far, but this is the first they’ve obtained.
“They came here with big a fake check and said, ‘You’ve got the money,’” said Garcia.
