Three of the primary focus areas within WW will be: aquatic, terrestrial, social science. GST tools and outreach are educational components common to each focus area. Changes over the past several centuries have altered the landscapes of both watersheds, forming crosscutting science themes (land use, climate change, and human activities) that affect watershed functions. The specific discipline areas are described in more detail below.

Geospatial Technologies
Geospatial Technologies, such as GIS, GPS, and remote sensing, are valuable tools to be used in the study of a wide range of biological, physical, and anthropogenic aspects of the landscape. The power of a GIS has been noted in its ability to gain new insight into the spatial analysis of layers of environmental information and other characteristics defining a local area (Clarke, 2001). Data in the literature associate land use change in watershed areas to population growth (Raffensper, 2003). Thus, the human dimensions to be studied in WW will be the social geography (demographic, socio-economic, and cultural characteristics of the local population) of the watersheds. Students will be taught to use satellite-derived thematic maps to identify the spatial aspects of these characteristics of the WW watersheds.

Aquatic Science
The aquatic science component will focus on water resources, especially water quality in relation to land use and pollution. Research activities in microbiology, water chemistry, and geology will take place in the field and the laboratory during the two week WW Summer Research Institute. Within each watershed, students will help identify and geo-reference sampling sites (e.g., source region, forested and agricultural areas, developed areas, etc.) that are expected to maximize information about river system properties. The influence of major point and non-point drainage on water quality will be explored downstream of fertilized fields, water and sewage treatment plants, and cities. We hypothesize that the water chemistry, mean annual temperature, and suspended solids loading of these two rivers should be very different. These and other expected differences relating to the nature of the surrounding landscape should have major impacts upon water clarity and the abundance and diversity of microbial populations found in the water.

Microbiology
Microbes are crucial components in watersheds. They comprise a biofilter responsible for ameliorating pollutants. They carry out normal mineral and energy cycling in soils, water and sediments, and some, especially those of animal origin, can contaminate natural waters creating potentially hazardous situations for recreational (Fujioka, 1997; Leclerc, et al. 2001) or other water users. WW offers an excellent opportunity to engage students as microbiologists in monitoring the bacteriological quality of water. Our plan is to educate WW students in carrying out bacterial counts and fecal coliform analysis and then examine how the various human (point and non-point sources) and natural factors (chemistry, water quality) influence these numbers. Our experience has been that once students are exposed to microbiology, they find it fun and relevant (most undergraduate microbiology majors at UNH are recruited from other disciplines). We will use its inherent appeal attract WW students.

Limnology/Water Quality
Students will become familiar with the importance of surface waters to human development by studying how water is both a habitat for living organisms and a disposal conduit for natural erosion and manmade wastes. Using standard physical, chemical, biological and geological methods employed in water resource and quality monitoring programs, students will explore the watersheds to learn how water quantity and quality varies in space and time, and how some of these variations arise naturally and some through human activity. Physical parameters to be measured will include profiles of down welling light intensity (400 & 700 nm) and temperature, water clarity, pH, dissolved oxygen content, and specific conductance. Biological parameters will include chlorophyll a (by extraction and spectrophotometry) and relative dominance of net phytoplankton and zooplankton (by microscopy). Geological parameters include river discharge and suspended sediment loads using measurements of average current speed, river cross-sectional areas, and filtration of water samples.

Terrestrial Science
The terrestrial research component of WW will focus on the impacts of three separate but interrelated topics: climate change, land cover change, and human impacts (conducted as part of the Social Science activities). Activities will be designed to engage and excite students in each Summer Research Institute, using GST to investigate student-generated research projects.

Climate Change
WW students will use historic climate data to determine historic temperature and precipitation trends for each watershed. The New England region and the southeastern region have undergone modest climate changes over the past 100 years (NAST, 2000), the southeast cooling by 2ºF over the past century (Karl, et al., 1993; SRAT, 2002) and New England warming by 0.7ºF over the same period (NERAG, 2001). Do watershed trends match these regional trends? If not, how can the differences between watershed and regional trends be explained? WW students will use the Hadley and Canadian Global Climate Models, regionalized using VEMAP grid-cells (VEMAP, 1995), to project temperature and precipitation patterns to 2100. Specific tutorials will be developed to allow WW students to manipulate input variables for each model, such as rate of CO2 increase (or decrease), to determine the amount of impact under “business as usual” or Kyoto protocol scenarios. In addition to modeling, students will use change-over-time and damage assessment capabilities of Landsat TM/ETM data to evaluate and quantify the impacts of each severe weather events (such as Hurricane Isabel in 2003 in the Southeast and the 1998 ice storm in northern New England) on dominant features of the two watersheds.

Land Cover Mapping
Using detailed protocols developed as part of both Forest Watch program, WW students will learn the basics of image processing through the use of MultiSpec to evaluate Landsat TM/ETM+ satellite data as part of the WW Summer Research Institute, to be followed by student-generated applications during the following academic year WW seminar. They will conduct change-over-time comparisons, and forest damage assessments (Rock, et al., 1986; Ardo, et al., 1997), and then evaluate the accuracy of their data products, using standard accuracy-assessment methods (Congalton and Green, 1999). Once watershed-level land cover data are available for both river systems, MultiSpec will be used to quantify the amounts and changes-over-time of each land cover type occurring in each watershed. The relative differences will be evaluated and used in conjunction with measurements of differences in watershed function and forest type to compare impacts of climate, geology/soil types, and human activities characterizing the two watersheds.

Social Science
One often-neglected aspect of watershed research is the direct impact of the human element, as compared with the indirect (yet human dominated) land cover change over time. This human impact can be described by the demographic, socio-economic, and cultural characteristics of the local population. Much watershed research focuses on the management of watershed environments (Rosgen, 2001; Odhiambo, 2000). In order to infuse the human element directly in WW, social science activities to be conducted will involve the construction and subsequent use of satellite-derived base maps for the two watersheds. WW students would then be able to effectively examine the effect of land use cover as well as past and future climate change in coastal wetlands. GST will be presented as valuable tools for integrating a wide range of biological, physical, and anthropogenic features of the landscape. These technologies will focus on land-use change in watershed areas associated with population growth (Raffensper, 2003), connecting the human dimension via the social geography of the Merrimack and Pasquotank watersheds.

Mathematics
Mathematics is not a content discipline that many students, especially those who are not enrolled in STEM disciplines, would see as valuable and beautiful. Students often developed their misconception and attitude towards mathematics through their years' experiences in learning school mathematics as a set of isolated concepts and procedural skills. Over the years, mathematics has been seen as "filter" rather than a "pump" for students to get into STEM disciplines (NRC, 1989; Steen, 1988). The watershed research proposed in this project provides an excellent context for students to learn mathematics through problem solving. In particular, the WW students will learn basic concepts in experimental design, sampling strategies, data analysis, and the use of specific software. The WW students will then "discover" the importance and value of mathematics through the process of using these concepts and software in their own research activities related to watershed.