Deering High School Students Monitor Capisic Brook

As part of our school outreach, educators from the Cumberland County Soil & Water Conservation District (CCSWCD) have been working with Deering High School students to study the health of Capisic Brook. The students are participating in the University of Maine’s Stormwater Management Research Team (SMART) program, which encourages students to become actively engaged in water quality monitoring at a local water body in their neighborhood.

CCSWCD has been supplementing the student's SMART work to provide them with a better understanding of how actions and activities on the land can impact our water. Lessons focus on how pollutants enter Capisic Brook, their effects on the water and wildlife, and the many different indicators of stream health.

The students also participated in a field trip that taught them how looking at stream life (critters called macroinvertebrates) can tell scientists if pollution is present in the stream. The students stepped into waders and got into Capisic Brook to collect and identify macroinvertebrates.

Students identify macroinvertebrates collected from Capisic Brook.

As part of the SMART program, the students will share their findings with the community. The students are enthusiastic about working with CCSWCD staff to explore different ways to share their information.  Possible outreach includes working with younger students at Longfellow Elementary School, and participating in storm drain stenciling.