HUB IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Tierpark Nordhorn | Educating the Next Generation of (Citizen) Scientists

Interview taken by Anna Riley-Shepard

First things first. What brought you to Drinkable Rivers?

Rebecca: Tierpark Nordhorn cares for zoo animals, but we also care strongly for our region’s natural environment. So, we’re always looking for new ways to engage young people and get them learning hands-on about this landscape. That’s why we teamed up with Drinkable Rivers’ citizen science program a year-and-a-half ago.

Lisa: We’re both biologists by training. We moved from academia to Tierpark Nordhorn’s Zoo School because we felt we could make a more tangible impact working with kids directly to ignite their love of nature and science. By becoming a Drinkable Rivers hub, we’ve been able to add an extensive river health measurement program to our existing experiential learning offerings for local schools.

Rebecca: Our mission is to get students up close with nature, using scientific methods to better understand their environment. With the Drinkable Rivers toolkit and manuals, they can really observe and take responsibility for the landscape in a new way. They can say: “Oh, so these strips I’m using to measure pH or nitrates actually tell me about the quality of the water and the health of the river ecosystem. Maybe all these things I learn in school really make a difference in the real world after all!”

Tell us more about how you use the toolkit with the kids. What does the program look like?

Lisa: Well, the schools we partner with bring their students to our outdoor classroom at the Vechte, usually between 15 and 30 students per class. We provide them with measurement materials from the toolkit and a laminated copy of the manual so they can write down their field observations. We’ve had two measurement days with classes thus far, and we want to start doing it more often.

Rebecca: After the field measurement days, we go and visit the classrooms to help the students analyze and contextualize their results. I usually like to explain what all the parameters they’ve tested mean for the health of the river. I even looked up the thresholds for these parameters in our region for tap water, so they can compare the values they got with the reference values in clean drinking water. It’s nice to see them go from spending time outdoors by the river to getting excited about science and developing greater care and concern for the environment.

Could you share a few memorable highlights or challenges you have experienced so far?

Lisa: One small challenge we had at the beginning was that the manual instructed us to take measurements along a longer distance of the river than is accessible to us due to private property lines. But we were able to easily solve this by just adjusting the calculations to fit the smaller measurement intervals. Putting our science backgrounds to good use!

Rebecca: One big highlight I can share is that we’ve received a new grant from the Niedersächsische Bingo-Umweltstiftung to fund all our Drinkable Rivers educational activities this year! That means we can go beyond having the kids just visit the zoo and build longer term learning curricula for them in the classroom.

Lisa: One other thing along those lines. It’s not a problem for our mission of involving kids with nature and environmental protection, but since different students are involved each time we take the measurements, we introduce huge variance into the dataset. Of course we show them what to do, but some students may gather data more precisely than others or may interpret the colors of the measuring strips differently. Thus, we might see differences between measurement points caused by the observer. We’re not sure yet how this will play out.

These all seem like things other hubs could benefit from hearing about! How do you see Tierpark Nordhorn engaging with the Drinkable Rivers hub community in the future?

Rebecca: We haven’t yet had much contact with other hubs, but we would be interested in exchanging stories and insights – especially with other hubs using the Drinkable Rivers toolkit for educational purposes internationally. It would also be great to get reference data from hubs in other types of watersheds and ecosystems. For example, our Vechte is a relatively calm river in a temperate climate. It’s relatively clean, with the main source of pollution being agricultural runoff. It would be cool to get a picture of what hubs are measuring in, say, a pristine and fast-moving river or a heavily industrialized river. Then we could compare these with the results our kids measure, to give them more context and a deeper understanding of what it all means.

Any parting advice for other hubs starting out?

Lisa: I definitely recommend fisherman’s waders for accessing deeper water. I didn’t have them at first, and very soon my feet were wet! The waders allow you to get out farther in the river to measure the depth and the clarity. Of course, even with the waders, you may not be able to get to the deepest point, and there’s always a chance the current is too strong in the middle of the river – safety first. But wearing fisherman’s waders, you look like a real Drinkable Rivers citizen scientist 😉