By Dan Klepal
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission wants to bring a floating classroom full of high school juniors and seniors to the Ohio River starting in fall 2004.

The idea is to take kids on the river for real-world research such as tracking water quality, investigating invasive species such as zebra mussels, and looking at how weather affects pollutants in the river.

If it gets the boat and the cash necessary to keep it afloat, Orsanco hopes to launch the project in Cincinnati, with four- to six-hour voyages in September and October 2004. The following fall, the classroom would serve students from the river's headwaters in Pittsburgh to where it flows into the Mississippi River at Cairo, Ill.

Orsanco received a $500,000 grant from the L&L Nippert Charitable Foundation last year to buy the boat and turn it into a classroom, and is working to buy a paddlewheel craft from a private owner. Officials still have to raise enough money to cover operational costs - including fuel, a program director, a deckhand and a captain - all necessary before the classroom can hit the water. Orsanco estimates those costs, which it has yet to raise, at $400,000 a year, said Erin Overholt, education spokeswoman for the organization.

An advisory board made up of people from education and water-related organizations in the Ohio River basin would guide the program.

"We should be able to serve several thousand students over the course of a year," said Jeanne Ison, spokeswoman for Orsanco. Officials hope the boat is used by about 250 classes a year.

The lessons will go beyond a six-hour boat tour. Students will be expected to study the river and its issues for weeks before the tour. They will be expected to apply that knowledge while on the tour and use it in projects after the tour, such as identifying household chemicals and safe ways to dispose of them to make sure they don't end up in the river.

High school science or biology classes would have to apply to study on the floating classroom. Similar programs exist elsewhere, including Pittsburgh, where students use a boat to study the Ohio around that city.

In addition to hosting students, the boat would also host Scout troops, civic groups, public voyages and family nights.

Orsanco was created by the federal government in 1948 to represent all the states along the 981-mile river. Its activities include water quality monitoring, tracking spills and education.

E-mail dklepal@enquirer.com