Community Scientist Spotlight: Dripping Springs High School

Students from the Dripping Springs High School's Texas Stream Team.

As Texas Stream Team partners, Dripping Springs High School engages its students in water quality monitoring to empower them with real-world skills and a sense of responsibility toward stewarding their local waterways.

The partnership with Texas Stream Team helps improve students' understanding of environmental science and involves them in meaningful conservation efforts. This collaboration not only fosters a sense of environmental responsibility but also serves as an example of how schools can play a pivotal role in nurturing the next generation of community scientists.

In this spotlight, we talked with Chelsea Bivens, Texas Stream Team Trainer and Science Teacher at Dripping Springs High School, to explore how her students are turning their passion for the environment into action by stepping into roles as community scientists and stewards.

When did Dripping Springs High School become a Texas Stream Team partner? How many members are currently involved?

Dripping Springs High School became a Texas Stream Team partner in the Spring of 2022. We have 11 members at present, but that number fluctuates by the semester due to early graduations and new students moving in.

Why was it important to begin water monitoring with students at Dripping Springs High School?

Water quality monitoring is important for our kids for a variety of reasons. They’re learning real-world skills that could transfer to future careers, building a base of volunteer hours that can bolster college applications, adding an extra-curricular club to their resume, developing a sense of stewardship, connecting to their community in a meaningful way, educating peers and adults about water quality, making friends and, maybe most importantly, they're getting outside, enjoying nature and getting away from fluorescent lights and glowing screens for a brief period of time. 

Some of our members had older siblings who took them out to monitor when they were part of the team and then joined themselves when they got to high school, so there is an aspect of family bonding to this as well. Some kids go monitor with their families. I think water monitoring has been a great way for families to get outside together.

From your perspective, how has this partnership enhanced students' understanding and/or commitment to water stewardship?

That’s an interesting question. Assigning each student a monitoring location near their home has made them more aware of what is happening in their neighborhoods and how those activities impact their waterway. I think they’re spreading their knowledge to friends and family. Several of my members have gone on to college with the intention of getting a degree with an environmental science focus. 

You don’t see what you can’t see, so I feel it’s important to get students out to their locations so they can really see the changes occurring at their waterway with the seasons and with local events. I know some of my kids have had some real lightbulb moments when monitoring, like my kiddo, who actually got to see how the warming of water impacts dissolved oxygen. He was in a bit of a tizzy and messaged me, saying he had checked the dissolved oxygen (DO) at three separate times of day because the DO concentration had dropped so much after a warming event. It was a great opportunity to remind my student of information they had learned and to see what, up to that point for that student, had just been information they got from training.

What advice do you have for educators interested in creating a Texas Stream Team monitoring group at their school?

It can be a lot of work, and it can take a lot of effort to get started, but it is so worth it! The kids are amazing, and I think they really feel that what they are doing has value and they enjoy what they do. 

In addition to that, setting up a Stream Team is expensive. Explore every avenue for funding. I applied for many grants, set up a GoFundMe, and put a lot of my own money into starting this organization. Now, we collect cans from around the school to cover some of our supply refills. You have to be creative.

What do you wish other people knew about Dripping Springs High School’s involvement with the Texas Stream Team?

I wish the community at large knew exactly how hard these kids work and how amazing they are. They have taken on this extra responsibility while balancing other activities, jobs, family time, and everything else that goes along with being a high school kid. 

They have spent time learning new skills and still show a drive to learn and do more. For instance, we were approached by the city to take part for the second time in the city’s Founder’s Day celebrations by collecting recycling from the event. The year prior, we only worked one day of the three days of the event. As soon as I told the kids we had been invited back, their first question was if we could do more than one day this year and increase our impact by keeping even more recyclables out of the landfill.