The high school students in Stori Oates’ Oceanography class at Marin Academy are the latest volunteers to join Surfrider’s Blue Water Task Force water testing program. They are testing two recreational sites on a weekly basis, McNears Beach Park and a popular rowing dock on Corte Madera Creek. The students are collecting their own samples and are monitoring their sites for nutrients and a suite of fecal indicator bacteria: Enterococcus, Total Coliforms, and E. coli.
The Marin County Surfrider Chapter has been running its Blue Water Task Force water testing program in partnership with a group of dedicated
students at Branson School since 2007, and is excited about their new partnership with science teacher Stori Oates and her students at Marin Academy. A map of all the sampling locations in Marin County and water test results can be viewed on the BWTF website.
Marin Academy is committed to experiential education, and their partnership with the Marin County Chapter is an excellent opportunity for these students to be immersed in a citizen-science program with real world implications. It looks like everyone was having fun out in the field sampling and in the lab processing samples!