The Assumption Regional Catholic School (Galloway) Aqua Leaders team recently learned they were first place winners in the national Lexus Eco Challenge, a STEM competition that invites middle and high school students to tackle environmental issues.
What started as research on lead levels in drinking water in New Jersey schools expanded to a national focus on the quality of water, an understanding of how hard it is to access water in some parts of the world, advocacy and fundraising efforts, and presentations that belie the age of their authors.
Guided by middle school science teacher Patricia Naples, the team met weekly throughout the summer of 2019. Their first challenge was to collect data about lead levels in drinking water from every public school in the state. A visit to New Jersey Future, a Trenton-based organization that promotes smart land use and development in the state, uncovered some of the data, but the rest had to be researched on school websites.
“We had to go through every school’s individual website and dig through all their files just to find their most recent lead records,” said eighth grader Owen Nowalsky.
Stockton University statistics professor Dr. Stephen Kubricki taught the team how to analyze the data, which confirmed their theory that the highest lead levels appeared in the lowest socioeconomic areas. The group was shocked to find that lead levels in 11 New Jersey cities and two counties were worse than those reported in Flint, Michigan, which gained national attention in 2014 for lead levels and other contaminants in its drinking water.
The Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI) at Rutgers University helped the team test water samples from area Catholic schools. While the sample size was too small to be statistically conclusive, the presence of lead in the samples from Catholic schools was significantly lower than that of public schools in the same areas.
The Aqua Leaders earned one of two first place wins for the Eastern region – with cash prizes and an invitation to continue their work.
“We expanded on our vision of what the project could be,” said Mackenzie Ade, grade seven.
“For a while it was very area-specific, but when we discovered we were moving on, we were doing a lot more national and international stuff, starting with outreach ideas, rather than just collecting data,” added Anastasia Hultquist, an eighth grader.
Mackenzie and fellow seventh grader Steven Flynn presented their findings about high lead levels and socioeconomic disparities to the New Jersey Department of Education. At school, the team hosted an “Everything Water” festival, where they were joined by local water-related agencies and presented their work to Catholic schools superintendent Dr. Bill Watson.
As their focus broadened, the Aqua Leaders researched school drinking water standards throughout the United States. With a postcard campaign, they communicated results to legislators in every state and included information for making improvements.
They also became aware of limited access to water, nationally and in other parts of the world. Through the organization Just One Africa, they learned about water access and quality issues in Africa and the value of low-cost water filters. It became increasingly important to the team to work for improvements.
With local fundraising, they were able to purchase filters for Just One Africa and for a community in Haiti, where Camden Diocesan priest Father Yvans Jazon leads mission trips. Fundraising efforts also supported Saint Bonaventure Mission and School on the Navajo Nation in New Mexico, where 250 families depend on a water truck to fill barrels with potable water.
“I really liked how much we were recognized and how much we actually impacted people,” said Isabella Scheper, noting that the prize money was a plus as well.
Sponsored through a partnership with Lexus and Scholastic Corporation, the Lexus Eco Challenge awards a total of $500,000 in grants and scholarships. For their regional and national wins, the Assumption team earned a total of $25,000, divided according to competition rules among the team members, their advisor and the school. They used part of their award from the regional competition to purchase a water bottle refilling station for nearby Our Lady Star of the Sea School in Atlantic City.
Anastasia and Owen are moving on to high school, but Isabella, Mackenzie and Steven are ready to take on the 2020 Lexus Eco Challenge. With a five-member minimum, they need to recruit at least two more students for their team.
“You learn a lot about teamwork,” said Naples, their advisor. “They had to learn to rely on each other and share information.”
Principal Joan Dollinger acknowledged the students’ hard work and offered a round of applause to Naples. “I was their cheerleader. That was my job,” she said.
Visit the team’s website and learn more athttps://aqualeaders.wixsite.com/water.
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