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Bear Creek gets students' aid Six-school council will choose and run watershed projects By VICKI GUARINO Students from six Bear Creek Valley high schools have the opportunity this year to combine class work with projects to improve the waterway. A student watershed council will plan and design its own projects, solicit help from specialists, apply for grants and perform community service projects dedicated to water quality. The group of as many as 15 students will direct its own projects under the supervision of the Rogue Valley Council of Governments and the Bear Creek Watershed Council. "This is something we've wanted to do for a long time," says David Jacob, manager of a wide-ranging community service project to enhance the Bear Creek drainage. "We often don't give students enough credit for wanting to do their own projects." He says the student council is a unique opportunity for high school students. For years, students have helped out on watershed projects planned and organized by adults. And students have undertaken numerous environmental projects within their own high schools. Crater High School, for instance, has an outdoor "land lab" facility outside town for environmental studies. But the Bear Creek Student Watershed Council will bring together students from several high schools and allow them to define an environmental need and answer it. Students from high schools within the Bear Creek area -- North and South Medford, St. Mary's, Crater, Phoenix and Ashland -- are being invited to participate. Interested students should call Beth Franklin at RVCOG, 664-6676, to sign up for an orientation meeting to be held Nov. 10 at North Medford High School. Formation of the council has grown from a project launched in 1994 by watershed agency workers to train and assist classroom teachers. The agencies and schools have worked in a partnership to strengthen the science and ecology curriculum in the classroom. Participating teacher George Duran, who teaches science and ecology at North Medford High School, says the student council will give students experience in the science and the politics of water quality. They'll see how laws and agencies function as well as the processes of nature. "They'll be looking at the real world, the political systems," says Duran. "They'll see it from the inside. That will be the real benefit, I think. "And the chance to make a difference in the environment." With the involvement of teachers in the student council, Jacob says, the program can help students fulfill many of the curriculum requirements of state education reforms and the state Certificate of Initial Mastery. Students will do research, write proposals and make public presentations as well as perform the labor of creek cleanup, grass planting or other projects. Council work can help students complete school assignments as well, especially in the classes that now require students to perform community service. Students also will have the assistance of local ecology specialists. "We can help them with planning to get their project going," Jacob said. Students will operate the council as part of the Bear Creek Community Service Project, which will contribute $1,500 for basic expenses. "This is an experiment, obviously," Jacob said. "We'll see how it works. We're hoping the students will take the ball and run with it." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA