Our teams are developing focused researched problems to pursue during the spring of this year, 2003 through 2005. Many of these projects will continue into the following years with new students as they become a part of Bennett's Millpond Environmental Learning Project.

See results of the student projects at the Student Symposium

How did they learn to do all of this neat stuff? At the Summer Academy!

Each year, our teams develop focused researched problems centered on their observations of Bennett’s Millpond in addition to the collection of basic water quality and local microclimate parameters. Each team in composed of an incoming high school junior, an experienced high school senior and a mentoring teacher. Our teachers work with four students (two teams) throughout the year, spending many hours on Bennett’s Millpond testing the waters and developing good research questions. In addition, we have the support of experts from the University, local fish and wildlife personnel, local forestry and USDA resource personnel, local government and many knowledgeable community citizens. It is our goal to develop within our Millpond students a strong general understanding of the cypress swamp environment as well as an appreciation for the process of research science.

The secret to helping a student develop a strong research question is to let the student first find his or her own interest focus for study. This process does not happen quickly since many of our students have never had the opportunity to study a dynamic ecosystem over time. The project teachers have suggested that the key to successful student selection of a research topic is to assure that they spend time at the Millpond, learning how to make observations and data measurements, recording their observations and dialoging about what they have seen with others. Our incoming junior Millpond students work with an experienced senior student so they learn about the Millpond environment early in their first semester of project involvement. The junior team member will work with the senior on his selected research project over the upcoming year, and may continue with this research focus for the following year or decide to pursue another topic of interest. To summarize, some of the research projects have continued and grown over the last few years, some have kept the same general topic but have been refined and some are new start-ups based on the student participant’s area of interest. All of the student research is contributing to a larger knowledge base about Bennett’s Millpond so future students and community will have a richer understanding of this unique cypress swamp. The table summarizes the last three years of research projects.

School	Mentor Teacher(s)	2002-2003	2003-2004	2004-2005
John A. Holmes High School	Steve Karl   Sherlton Broadnax	General fish survey for species diversity, Core sampling for bottom sediment analysis, Conductivity and pH analysis of selected sample sites	Mapping the bottom depth of the Bennett’s Millpond, Distribution of submerged aquatic vegetation in Bennett’s Millpond,Comparison of dissolved oxygen levels above and below the spillway at Bennett’s Millpond, Analysis of bottom sediment cores along selected transects at Bennett’s Millpond	In search of the stream channel by mapping the bottom depth of the Bennett’s Millpond, Comparison of soil particles in feeder streams to the bottom sediments in Bennett’s Millpond, The effects of duckweed matting on the Dissolved Oxygen levels, Determining the presence of a thermocline at specific locations in Bennett’s Millpond
Gates County High School	Teri Campbell	Dissolved oxygen and nitrate analysis at Evans Church Road tributary	Study of recovery of dissolved oxygen levels after Hurricane Isabel at watershed sites, Soil properties of flood plain adjacent to Bennett’s Millpond feeder stream	Leaching of Macronutrients on soils adjacent to Bennett’s Millpond, Leaching of Macronutrients on floodplain soils adjacent to a Bennett’s Millpond feeder stream
Perquimans County High School	Robin Ward	Turtle survey to establish migration patterns within the Millpond	Analysis of filamentous green surface algal growth in areas of Bennett’s Millpond, Effects of blue heron rookery on the local water quality in Bennett’s Millpond	The dietary habits of Bowfin in Bennett’s Millpond, The presence of coliforms in Bennett's Millpond
Bertie County High School	Bruce Boller	Correlation between macro-invertebrate population and water quality in the Millpond	Survey of macro invertebrate population with focus on distribution of aquatic snails, DNA analysis of snail population in Bennett’s Millpond	Comparison of Surface and Bottom Dissolved Oxygen to the Macro invertebrate population, Protein fingerprinting comparison of Millpond snails to other gastropods