Inquiry about the 'Baig Cheon' Stream with the Perspective of Environmental Studies for Water Environmental Education Program using Streams

소하천 물 환경교육 프로그램을 위한 백천에 대한 환경학적 탐구

The Water Environmental Education Program Using Streams(WEES) is developed to help the teachers increase their professionalism of incorporating a local environment into their inquiry teaching. The purpose of this study is inquiry about the 'Baig Cheon' stream with the perspective of environmental studies for WEES. Through these studies, we tried to get the background information in 'Baig Cheon' and profound insights into application of WEES. The 'Baig Cheon' was examined from the perspective of environmental studies through literature study, field study, and water quality monitoring. The results revealed the characteristics of the 'Baig Cheon' that ran across a rural area in terms of the watershed boundaries, water systems, and water usage. The changes to the water quality items were observed according to the spatial distribution at the measuring points across the watershed for six months from March to August, 2007. The results indicate that the water quality of the 'Baig Cheon' could well be affected not only by the natural and environmental conditions such as the geological features, but also by the human activities including the land uses in the surrounding roads, rice fields and farms and the water supply and usage. The inquiry of the 'Baig Cheon' from the perspective of environmental studies will hopefully make the education and inquiry process of WEES more meaningful and in-depth and contribute to providing better environmental education that properly reflects the nature of inquiry from the perspective of environmental studies.