Ridgefield students use grant money to test refuge soil

Ridgefield — Ridgefield High School’s science program received a $15,100 grant through the Ridgefield Public Schools Foundation, with support from the Ridgefield Booster Club and Friends of the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. The district received the grant before the most recent school year, and used it for 14 laptops, 24 Vernier sensors and a laptop storage cart. Kara Breuer, a science teacher at the high school, had her students collect and investigate soil and water samples from the refuge’s Duck Lake and Boot Lake to determine if the wapato tubers that grow nearby were safe to eat. The students used the new equipment and visited a chemistry lab at the University of Portland to determine the soil and water located around the two lakes were all within typical limits for health risk factors, concluding the area was safe for the harvest of wapato.