News Archive

Whether you're new to the Leaf Pack Network or just need a refresher, our methods videos are a great way to supplement the material in the Leaf Pack Network Manual.

Learn from Leaf Pack Network® “superstars” as educators and partners share tips and tricks of engaging students in the Leaf Pack Network.

PocketMacros features nine orders of aquatic insects, plus other benthic macroinvertebrates commonly used in water quality biomonitoring and environmental education, with 150 taxa total.

This virtual learning resource helps anyone anywhere to simulate multiple stream studies and compare results — all from the other side of a screen!

A Canadian university is making sure students get fieldwork experience despite the pandemic — by mailing them freshwater field kits to use at home.

Explore our video library of aquatic macroinvertebrates wriggling, swimming, and crawling through stream water!

Designed for 7th-12th grade learners and adult audiences, this video series provides an in-depth look into caddisfly ecology, ecosystem engineering, fluvial geomorphology, and more.

Join Leaf Pack Network Administrator and freshwater ecologist, Tara Muenz, for a tour of the new Leaf Pack Stream Ecology Kit features PLUS an introduction on how YOU can get started with the Leaf Pack Network!

Check back regularly for new additions, or better yet, subscribe to the channel to be notified of new videos!

The app helps users log and share data they collect in the field, interpret the data through learning pop-ups, and export it to create databases.

Ever want to spend a day in the boots of a freshwater scientist? Our Water Science Career Videos engage viewers of all ages in real careers in freshwater-focused science, technology, engineering, and math.

Scientists and educators from Montana State University and Stroud Water Research Center have created an exciting extension of the Leaf Pack Network: the Rock Pack Experiment.

The Monitor My Watershed® data portal lets you share your Leaf Pack Network® data with the world and explore do-it-yourself environmental sensor datasets.

Announcing the release of the updated kit featuring a new dichotomous key, new sorting sheet, updated manual, and a simplified biotic index calculation.

Fall is a great time to do a leaf pack experiment — but not the only time! If you can't do an experiment in the fall you can still collect

The WCWA, which enhances and coordinates the activities of individual watershed associations, tweeted about their recent leaf pack experiment.

Net-spinning caddisflies build nets to trap their food. But did you know that these nets also hold rocks together in streams?

The old leaf pack database finally bit the dust, but a temporary system for entering and viewing new data has been put in place while we rebuild it.

The system for logging in, viewing historic data, and registering with the Leaf Pack Network is currently unavailable. We are working to bring it back (better than ever!) by fall.

In this issue: Leaf Pack webinar recording; workshop recap; new groups and projects; how to choose mobile digital technologies to enhance environmental education.

Students in Michigan discovered what was impacting their stream and then developed a plan to restore it with native plantings.

In this issue: Leaf Pack Network is 15 Years Old; Expanded WikiWatershed® Toolkit Debuts; Welcome New Groups; Macroinvertebrate ID; Amazing Mayfly Video.

In this issue: Where to find LPN online; Our Newest Ambassador; Leaves, Leaves Everywhere; Macroinvertebrates.org; Leaf Pack Experiment Video; Trout Grow on Trees.

Students will learn to design, implement, and analyze a scientific investigation while discovering the value of aquatic macroinvertebrates as living indicators of water quality. The kit is reusable and flexible, adaptable to

Christina Medved gave a leaf pack presentation at the Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts Environmental Education Conference and she gave a three-hour “Streams Within a Watershed Context” workshop at Kean University.

Education Programs Manager and Leaf Pack Network® Administrator Christina Medved attended the annual meeting of the Society for Freshwater Science held in Jacksonville, Fla., in May 2013.

With the support of the LaMotte Company, Christina Medved attended the National Science Teachers Association Area Conference in Atlanta to provide a Leaf Pack Workshop and help promote LaMotte and Stroud’s Leaf Pack Experiment Kit.

ACEER and Stroud Water Research Center used leaf packs and direct collection of macroinvertebrates to assess stream health along the Transoceanic Highway.

Nine individuals participated in a two-day Leaf Pack Network workshop at Gettysburg College. School teachers took the workshop in efforts to better understand stream ecology and also to be introduced to a new method of sampling streams — using leaf packs.

In collaboration with LaMotte, Stroud Water Research Center educator Christina Medved led two workshops at the regional NSTA conference in Nashville in December 2011.

Stroud Education Program Manager Christina Medved led a two-day Leaf Pack Network workshop for 16 teachers at Wilson College, Chambersburg, Pa. The teachers learned about general stream ecology and how to sample streams using leaf packs.

John Latimer, a staff writer with the Lebanon Daily News, met up with Christina Medved to get the scoop on why a group of teachers, ecologists, and municipal officials were getting their feet wet in Raccoon Creek.

If you visit Salt Creek, Death Valley on any given afternoon in the spring, you might have to navigate through school kids staring into the frothing waters. The kids have come to make leaf packs, designed as a tool to assess stream health, but have stopped to watch the pupfish breed in the shallow rivulets of Salt Creek.

In two packed workshops, Dr. Bern Sweeney and Christina Medved introduced the new Spanish-language version of Leaf Pack during a weeklong program in the Amazonian headwaters of Peru — the latest development in ongoing efforts to expand the program across Latin America and ultimately around the world.

Stroud Water Research Center Educators Christina Medved and Jamie Blaine traveled to Baru, Costa Rica to present a Leaf Pack workshop for local communities to learn about ways to monitor and protect their natural resources.

In September 2009, Yosemite Institute began using leaf packs to study macroinvertebrates in four streams in Yosemite Valley. Students have been studying water chemistry in these streams for several years but institute staff felt that biomonitoring would provide a more accurate measurement of the health of these ecosystems.

This video highlights the partnership between Stroud Water Research Center, Riverkeeper, and Hudson Basin River Watch in the early 2000s. The Leaf Pack experiment involves creating an artificial leaf pack,

In this issue: Peruvian Leaf Pack; Macroinvertebrate Review: Scuds vs. Sowbugs; Changing Lives & Communities in Costa Rica.

David C. Richardson wrote in the professional journal Stormwater about Forest Grove Community School in Oregon and Mahopac High School in New York, two of the schools that are using the Leaf Pack Experiment and getting results that are making a real difference to their communities.

In this issue: First Leaf Pack Workshop in Costa Rica; Macroinvertebrate Review: Blackflies vs. Midges; Leaf Pack Workshop: the Guatemalan Experience.

Charlie Graham teaches all subjects, including science, at Forest Grove Community School. He takes his job seriously and gets genuine enjoyment from watching his students connect the dots and understand their relationship to the environment. So, it’s no wonder that he is a fan of the Leaf Pack Experiment Kit.

For the 17 biologists, conservation workers and educators from Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and the United States who took part in a total immersion Leaf Pack Ambassador workshop, the third week in October was an intense time that held great promise.

In this issue: Leaf Pack Ambassadors: Leaf Pack Goes Spanish; Macroinvertebrate Review: Mayflies vs. Stoneflies; News And Success From The Classroom; Online Macroinvertebrate Key.

“Gracias por esta oportunidad,” wrote Gabrielle Gutierrez, a biology teacher at the Guanacaste Conservation Area in northern Costa Rica very near Stroud Water Research Center’s tropical stream laboratory at the Maritza Biological Station. “Thank you for this opportunity.”

In this issue: High School Students Teach New York City Residents About Drinking Water; Macroinvertebrate Review: Corydalidae vs. Hydropsychidae; Macroinvertebrate Images for Classroom Use.

In this issue: High Schoolers To Walk Entire Length of NYC Water Supply System!; Leaf Pack in Guatemala; Leaf Pack Goes to Summer Camp; High Schoolers Use Leaf Pack To Teach First Graders.

In this issue: Leaf Pack Across the Americas; NOAA Chesapeake Bay Leaf Pack Grant; Teachers Within the New York City Drinking Water Watershed: Meet Your Local Leaf Pack Coordinators.

Riverkeeper, Stroud Water Research Center, and Hudson Basin River Watch partnered to implement a program to harness kids’ fascination with bugs in order to measure water quality in the New York City Drinking Water Supply Watershed.

In this issue: How Do Scientists Tie A Leaf Pack?; Idaho State University Brings Leaf Pack Experiments To High School Students; Leaf Pack Goes International Again!

In this issue: Science Fair Winner; First Oregon Leaf Packers Study Threatened Stream; First Maryland Leaf Packers: Community Collaborative Comparing Urban and Rural Streams.

In this issue: Kenya Update: Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Stroud Center Partner; Penn State Leaf Pack Project.

In this issue: Into the Classroom: Clearpool Education Center; Students in Kenya Do the Leaf Pack Experiment; Interview with a Scientist; Funny Leaf Pack Stories.

In this issue: Our Leaf Pack Experiment is Done … Now What?; How Students in Kenya Are Using the Leaf Pack Experiment; New Aquatic Macroinvertebrate Life Cycle & Habitat Flashcards.

In this issue: Pennsylvania High School’s Leaf Pack Experiment; How Not to Lose a Leaf Pack.

In this issue: Fall is the Best Time For Leaf Pack Experiments; Summer 2002 Update.

At the end of her visit to Stroud Water Research Center, Nobel Prize nominee Wangari Maathai, was given a Leaf Pack Kit with the hope that she could engage students in Kenyan schools in a new and exciting approach to conservation.