This article is written by Benton High School EAST students JADE HARVEY and CAMDEN LEWIS. Scroll to the end for more about the EAST Initiative.
Benton High School EAST student, Jace Edwards, has been working on mapping the Saline River watershed. He has been able to work alongside Tate Wentz with the Arkansas Department of Agriculture and local non-profit the Saline River Watershed Alliance, that protect wildlife and the rivers of Arkansas. He hopes to continue his project till the end of the school year, but if he can not complete everything in time, then another student in the future will have the chance to continue working on it when they choose a project.
All images by Jace Edwards. Click image to enlarge or see much larger version at https://imgur.com/a/dCrbLge.
Throughout the project, Jace has used ArcGIS to map the watershed. He has made a story map of the waterway with the tributaries that lead to the Saline River.
His goal in pursuing this project was to map the river in order to keep trash from traveling into different communities. In mapping the Saline River, Jace has helped the community stay clean and the living specimens to be healthy and safe in their environment. To accomplish this goal, he has had weekly meetings with Wentz who has helped present his work to a group of non-profits that work on the river and watershed.
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has influenced his project as Jace has worked alongside them. He has completed approximately four to five tributaries in total but plans to continue and make as much progress as possible in his project.
Click image to enlarge, or see much larger version at https://imgur.com/a/dCrbLge.
Jace chose this project because he wanted to help people and work with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission as a future career. This project has brought him closest to working with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, which gave him more experience of what his career would be if he pursued it.
While working on this project, Jace has faced many challenges. One of his biggest challenges has been learning how to navigate ArcGIS software used to make maps and analyze data. Some of the pros Jace encountered on this project are having everything on his own time and not worrying about being rushed.
His goal for this project is to make as much progress in the time he has left. Because of EAST, Jace has learned to work with AGFC, SRWA and the Arkansas Department of Agriculture.
Click image to enlarge, or see much larger version at https://imgur.com/a/dCrbLge.
EAST stands for Education Accelerated by Serving and Technology. Read more about the EAST Initiative at www.eastinitiative.org.