Analyzing Minnesota’s watershed health assessment framework as an ecological assessment tool and utilizing it to develop place-based secondary science curriculum

Abstract

Ecological assessment frameworks increasingly influence natural resource management, environmental decision-making, and public understanding of watershed health. However, the growing use of multi-indicator, model-based assessment tools raise concerns about scientific credibility, transparency, and accessibility for non-expert users. In this paper, I evaluate Minnesota’s Watershed Health Assessment Framework (WHAF) as a case study to determine whether integrated, statewide ecological assessment tools can effectively balance scientific rigor with interpretability. To develop this criteria-based qualitative evaluation, I synthesized literature from ecological assessment, watershed science, systems sciences, and environmental education to create evaluation criteria across five categories: scientific validity, transparency and interpretability, scalability and spatial coverage, accessibility for non-experts, and educational adaptability. I evaluated Minnesota’s WHAF by reviewing peer-reviewed publications, publicly accessible documentation, online dashboards, and spatial data visualizations produced by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. I found that WHAF is scientifically sound, grounded in established ecological principles, and well-suited for large-scale watershed assessment due to its integrated indicators and statewide spatial consistency. The framework performs particularly well in scalability and public accessibility, featuring interactive maps and a dashboard. However, there are still limitations in the transparency of predictive modeling components and in the interpretation of complex indicators for non-expert audiences, which may influence end-users' understanding of uncertainty. I conclude that, despite these challenges, Minnesota’s WHAF is a credible ecological assessment framework and that its strengths surpass its limitations, especially when used within a place-based secondary science curriculum. When integrated into high school environmental science classes, WHAF can promote data literacy, systems thinking, and student engagement by linking classroom learning to locally relevant environmental data.