Service to Schools

TVA Retirees Connect Students to Real-World Science

On a bright spring morning outside Lookout Valley Elementary School in Chattanooga, volunteer Stuart Neil helped pairs of students fill beakers of water.

“Now we count to 30 before we look at the water temperature,” Neil, who retired from Tennessee Valley Authority substation design, said.

One pair of students knelt next to the bucket and took a deep breath.

“One Mississippi, two Mississippi,” they chorused.

Mandy Carter, their lab teacher, smiled.

“They take their Mississippis very seriously.”

“And you’re done – good job,” Neil announced. “Now it’s time to start the tests.”

The third graders trooped back inside, where a water lab and Bicentennial Volunteers, Inc. members Wanda Mosley and Sam Esslinger awaited.

Today marked the second school visit as part of a pilot program to bring retired TVA employees’ science and engineering passion into schools.

“The program lets them go through a total experience,” Esslinger, who ran TVA hydropower plants before retiring, said. “We have videos, we have hands on and then we have experiments.”

It encourages budding student interest in STEM careers – science, technology, engineering, art and math.

So far, it’s been a success.

“The kids are so excited and inquisitive,” Mosley, who retired from construction at TVA, said. “You think they’re so young, but they’re so knowledgeable and so curious.”

Lookout Valley Elementary student Kingston Peterson relished shaking the water during the dissolved oxygen test. (Photos by Susan Ehrenclou / TVA)

More Than Electricity

The first question volunteers asked the students: What do they know about TVA?

“They make electricity,” several students said.

Another student, Ash Hollington, said, “And help aquatic life."

“TVA provides lots of jobs to people,” student Carson Consiglio said.

The volunteers played a TVA Science Kids video narrated by Jessica Stevens Raper, TVA’s business support representative in public outreach and support.

She filled in TVA’s other roles – managing the Tennessee River system for flood control, navigation and recreation.

It’s relevant to kids across the Valley region – and especially to these students, because a creek flows through the school’s campus and connects to the Tennessee River just across the street.

The volunteers asked students how they use the river that flows through Chattanooga.

“Swimming!” several students called out.

“Paddleboarding,” one answered.

“Fishing,” many said.

“To knock my sister off our boat!” a girl called.

Neil guffawed.

“All right. And if you're in the water, you want the water to be good and clean,” he said.

To serve all these needs, the video said, TVA scientists measure water temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH and turbidity – the cloudiness of the water.

“And we're going to do science experiments to test those four things,” Stevens Raper explained.

Students sat at lab tables with their now-full beakers of water while Mosley, Neil and Esslinger patrolled.

They helped students plop water-testing tablets into vials.

They guided students as they peered at a black and white Secchi disk printed on the bottom to assess water clarity.

The room hummed as the kids carefully followed lab procedures and recorded results.

“Everything about this is my favorite,” student Caleb Stockman said, smiling.

TVA retiree and Bicentennial Volunteers, Inc. member Sam Esslinger helps students test water.

Student Excitement

As the volunteers roved the room, they nodded appreciatively at stacks of tie-dyed T-shirts students had created.

3-D printers stood in a corner and colorful boxes of supplies lined the walls.

“All I’d say is my third grade class looked nothing like this,” Esslinger said.

Carter nodded.

“We are very blessed to have this lab and provide these life skills for students,” she said.

She explained that some kids who struggle in regular classrooms shine in the STEAM lab’s innovative space.

“It's nice for everybody to feel like they are good at something,” she said.

One thing these students were great at – and that many claimed as their favorite today – was the dissolved oxygen test.

It measured how much oxygen the wind and TVA’s hydropower turbines had folded into the water for fish – the same ones many students loved catching – to breathe.

And it required shaking.

Lots and lots of shaking.

Some students tilted the vial back and forth. Some shook vigorously and handed it off to a buddy for a break. And one student, Kingston Peterson, shook his whole body.

The water for all turned a pleasing grapefruit pink.

After completing all the tests, the volunteers encouraged students to draw conclusions.

“Based on your results, do you think this river will support aquatic life?” Neil asked.

Now still and serious, Peterson raised his hand.

“I do,” he said confidently. “Because it had low turbidity, enough dissolved oxygen and a 7.5 pH.”

Student Emileigh Smith said the results had surprised her.

“I feel good about swimming in the water now,” she said.

TVA retiree and Bicentennial Volunteers, Inc. member Wanda Mosley guides students through the water lab activities.

Curriculum Connections

In addition to connecting students with retired TVA employees who used science, engineering and math in their careers, this TVA program linked directly to the school curriculum.

“Our school is studying water around the world – having clean water, healthy water,” Carter said.

Student maps and drawings of waterways and resources adorned the school’s hallways.

“They're doing a water drive right now for our own community,” Carter said. “This was their final project, testing our river.”

As each class finished and filed into the hallway, they called out thank you and the volunteers waved.

“I thought this was amazing, and it was perfectly orchestrated,” Carter said. “It applies real-life skills and connects back to the classroom. I can see building on this for next year once they’re in fourth grade.”

“I thought it went really, really well, too,” Esslinger said. “It was my first time presenting – but Stuart’s a veteran now.”

Neil smiled.

 “I love watching the kids when they start collecting the water,” he said. “They light up and you know they enjoy doing it.”

The three volunteers had lit up interacting with students, too.

Because it’s been so successful – and fun – TVA’s Bicentennial Volunteers, Inc. and Natural Resources will team up to offer the program to schools in Knoxville next year.

They’re putting out the call for all TVA retirees to join.

“Everybody needs to get out and do volunteer work in their community,” Neil said.

Photo Gallery

Volunteer Stuart Neil, a TVA retiree, helps students test water.

Students work together to measure water temperature. 

Teacher Mandy Carter helps students read water temperature. 

Measuring temperature is a flurry of activity. 

Students use a beaker and other TVA Kids supplies for their water lab activities.  

PHOTO AT TOP OF PAGE: Students David Dillard and Caleb Stockman conduct water quality tests.