About ALLARM's blog

Welcome to the Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring’s (ALLARM) blog! The ALLARM team has a number of fun adventures working with communities and volunteers interested in assessing the health of their streams. The goal of our blog is to share our experiences and bring you on our journey. We hope you learn more about community-based science and the amazing work taking place in Pennsylvania and New York. If you would like to learn more about ALLARM, go to dickinson.edu/allarm and follow us on social media @ALLARMwater!

Address: Dickinson College/ALLARM
P.O. Box 1773
Carlisle, PA 17013

Tel: (717) 245-1565
Email: allarm@dickinson.edu

Volunteer Monitoring

photo of Farmers on the Square tabling with Hakeema, Alyssa, and Ryan smiling behind the table. Taken from in front of the ALLARM booth.

Summer Watershed Coordinators take on Farmers on the Square!

This summer, three of our student watershed coordinators had the opportunity to attend Carlisle’s “Farmers on the Square” as vendors representing water quality efforts in the region.  On June 24th and July 22nd, they set up a table and answered questions regarding local water quality,…

Ryan Training Stream Team Volunteers in Elmira, New York.

Summer Watershed Coordinators: Reflecting on their Experiences in New York

The weekend of July 18-19, 2026, our summer watershed coordinators joined some of our full-time staff on their trip to New York! This trip was filled with learning experiences for these students. On Saturday, they stopped by Elmira, New York to hold a Stream Team…

A pH Experiment: The Effect of Light on Color

pH stands for “Potential of Hydrogen” which measures how acidic or alkaline a substance is. pH is an important indicator of stream health. At ALLARM, the LaMotte Precision pH Test Kit is used to measure the hydrogen ion concentration (pH) in water. The more hydrogen ions that are present, the more acidic is the solution​ (Wood…