Lima City students take a close look at water quality

Middle and high school students from Lima City Schools got a preview of the topic of the next William Fowler Science Series - water quality - and a chance to try some hands-on activities when they visited the regenerative farm at The Ohio State University at Lima in October.

The students had a taste of some of the subjects and experiences that Ohio State undergraduate researchers and faculty members dive into every day, like what insects live on the farm and how the lineup changes with different crop practices or how the macroinvertebrates living in the creek can change based on water quality.

"Our students really enjoyed hearing from experts and having the opportunity to ask questions. The experiences provided were new and unusual to most of our students and they found it very interesting," said Lima Senior High teacher Joel Steinmetz. "For some, it was out of their comfort zone, but when knowledgeable teachers and professors are there to support the lessons it makes a big difference for the students, by assuring them and supporting the work and questions they asked."

Part of what Steinmetz's students are studying is eutrophication, or the gradual increase in nutrients that can lead to increased plant and algae growth in in a water system. The students got a close up look at a variety of management practices that can change the intensity of nutrient discharge. Some of the conservation practices on display at the Lima farm are a water retention pond, irrigation system and saturated buffers implemented as part of the agricultural nutrient runoff treatments project funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through an assistance agreement with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

"Visiting the Ohio State Lima farm provided an amazing opportunity to see how humans impact water quality. The site provides real-world problems and solutions," Steinmetz said. "We could clearly see the potential problems caused by agricultural runoff and at the same time, we could see the highly engineered farm and water control structures as well as the impact they have on the downstream water quality."

The William Fowler Science Series returns in January 2025 with both a visit by Lima City Schools students to Ohio State Lima labs and a public presentation on water quality.