The Confluence Project: 

Where North Idaho Students Get into Water! 

North Idaho is wet! Everything about living in North Idaho pretty much revolves around this fact. We ski, we boat the big lakes, we fish, and we build structures being mindful of water and its power, or we pay the consequences for not doing so. Learning about how the local hydrologic cycle works, and about the quality of our ground and surface waters is key to building understanding of how to protect this precious resource that is a rarity in the western US.  

The Confluence Project (TCP) is a University of Idaho housed, year-long water science program for high schoolers in the Coeur d’Alene region of Idaho. This program pairs scientific experts with high school students to collaborate with hands-on experience, field data collection and higher education degrees in the natural sciences. “TCP helps our teens think about how water works locally, what challenges face our waters and brainstorm ways to help surmount these challenges” according to Erin Plue, TU’s Coeur d’Alene Project Manager.  

TCP is a partnership of local entities including The University of Idaho, The Coeur d’Alene Tribe, Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, Panhandle Health District, Trout Unlimited and IdaH2O. Each fall several high school science teachers commit a group of students to a year of curriculum, three field excursions and a final Youth Water Summit. The field excursions focus on water quality, snow science and groundwater. The Youth Water Summit is a presentation of a cumulation of all the lessons of the past year. In the spring students design and complete a research project that is focused on trying to solve a real-world water-based problem; students design a poster and present their projects to a team of voluntary judges. Over 100 water science professionals partake in the judging event!  

Erin Plue stated that “Before I worked for TU, I helped a teacher with her classroom’s development of TCP projects. During that year, I really saw how life-changing the TCP program can be for students. The projects give students an opportunity to try to solve real-world problems. For some kids this is the first time that schooling has been applicable to real life, and that experience can be life changing!” The TCP program requires a lot of dedication and work from many local people, but this effort creates a confluence between our youth and our waters…two of the most precious of resources around. 

Written by Erin Plue, Coeur d’Alene Project Manager for Trout Unlimited based in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

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