Download Hydrology investigation tests in either Microsoft Word or Adobe pdf formats for high school:

Grade Level	Student Version (formatted to hand out to students)	Teacher Version (includes sample answers)
High School 1
High School 2

Check out the Templates section to see how to design your own investigation problems	Check out the Rubrics section to see how investigation scoring rubrics are developed

You can also view the teacher version of the High School 1 version of the assessment here:

(Given data from the GLOBE data archives) GLOBE Data for Holcomb Elementary School and Jefferson Elementary School, Fayetteville, Arkansas

(Present problem requiring use of GLOBE data archives) Holcomb Elementary and Jefferson Elementary are two schools located within 5 miles of each other in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Both schools sit next to the same river, with Holcomb located upstream from Jefferson. Even though the schools are relatively close to each other, the plant and fish life appears to be different between the two sections of the river. You and several other students have been asked to report to your science class what some of the differences are and why you think they exist. To the left is data from the two schools between late November and late January to help you in your investigation.

1) (Plan Investigations: Pose relevant questions) Look at the GLOBE data in the tables. Think of two questions you might ask regarding the data. A sample question might be "What is unusual regarding water temperature between the two schools considering they take measurements from the same river?

One question I might ask: is there any relationship between water temperature and pH? In other words, if temperature goes up, what happens to pH? Another question I might ask: is there a trend in how temperature changes over time (or how pH changes over time?) By this I mean since the measurements go from Nov. 22nd until Jan. 24th, is there an increase or decrease in either of the variables?

2) (Interpret GLOBE Data: Infer patterns & trends) One of the students in your research group, Tom, suggests that many trends can be seen in the data. Describe one trend related to pH.

I noticed that for Jefferson elementary the pH steadily increases over time - it starts out at 8.1 in November and increases to 8.7 in January. There is a similar increase in pH, from 8.6 to 8.9 for Holcomb Elementary.

3) (Take GLOBE Measurements: Use quality assurance procedures) You have watched some of the students at your school collect GLOBE data and you've noticed that they have done a very good job. Just to check, are there any data that you suspect might be due to a measurement error? How can you tell? What would you tell these students to insure that measurement errors do not happen?

One measurement that seems unusual is for Jefferson Elementary is the temperature reading on January 17th - 41oC is awfully high for a day in the middle of winter, especially since the week before the temperature was only 4oC and the week after was 4.5oC. It looks like this error is because of a misplaced decimal point. I would tell these students they need to be very careful when taking measurements and recording the measurements. It might be a good idea for all measurements and recordings to be double-checked by another student. They should also be very careful when entering the data into the GLOBE database. Here they should also have the data double-checked before it is sent to the GLOBE database.

4) (Interpret GLOBE Data: Explain data & relationships) One of the students in your science group, Hilda, remembers showing the relationships between variables in her math class and suggested doing the same with the GLOBE data. What is the relationship between water temperature and pH for Jefferson Elementary? For example, if water temperature increases, what happens to the pH level?

From just looking at the data I can tell that as the temperature decreases the pH increases. It is kinda hard to tell if they both increase/decrease at the same rate - it would be helpful to have some sort of graph so you could get a better picture of the relationship between the two variables.

5) (Interpret GLOBE Data: Create multiple formats to represent data; explain data & relationships) Using the data provided for Holcomb Elementary, create a graph using that has time on the x-axis and pH on the y-axis. Describe how the pH is changing over time.

The pH is increasing over time, although one data point in January is a little off (this is pretty minor though.)

6) Using the data provided for Jefferson Elementary, create another graph with temperature on the x-axis and pH on the y-axis. Describe the relationship you see between pH and temperature.

From this graph it looks like pH decreases as temperature goes up. It looks like the pH drops slowly at first and then drops quickly - I'm not sure if this is because I don't have very many data points or if this is really how it is. Also, even though the pH decreases with increasing temperature, there might not be a direct relationship between the two - there might be some other factor(s) going on in the river that effects both pH and temperature so they look like pH is dependent on temperature.

7) (Interpret GLOBE Data: Explain data & relationships) One of the students in your science group, Debbie, mentioned that pH can affect fish and plant life. If the pH level dropped by 3 in the month of December for either of the schools, what would be the concern regarding life in the river?

I remember in one class that there are certain pH levels at which it becomes harmful for fish and plant life. These levels depend on the type of fish or plant you are talking about, but I general level I remember from class is around a pH of 4.0.

8) (Plan Investigations: Set up another problem) In the questions so far you have been looking at water temperature and pH. Randomly choose another site in the GLOBE database, pick a different variable that you would investigate, and choose a set of 10 dates in chronological order for the same time period to use as your data. Pick another trend to investigate. Why does this trend look interesting to you? What other surface water variables might you look at to tell you more about the particular trend you chose?

9) (Communicate: Compose reports to explain or persuade) Using the data analysis you have done, write a short report (1-2 pages) that summarizes your findings and explains why you think the plant and fish life varies between the two schools. Be sure to support your conclusions with data you have analyzed and suggest other data that might be helpful for further study of the river.