Fostering Bay Stewardship Values,

Understanding and Action

Dann Sklarew, Ph.D., et al.

George Mason University

for EMECS9, Aug. 29, 2011

School2Bay Project Aims

Increase watershed stewardship for the Chesapeake Bay

Provide MWEE – Meaningful Watershed Educational

Experience – for all students in Prince William County, VA:

16,000+ Middle School Students in 2009-2012

2500+ High School Students in 2010-2012

through a team of 50+ trained teachers &

50+ college science students, alumni & retired teachers

Project Approach

1. Create adaptable lesson plans to

address state‟s learning objectives.

(see school2bay.pbworks.com)

2. Train & technically assist teachers

to implement lesson plans.

3. Bring students on-line, outside and

to natural areas to investigate

watershed status and impacts.

4. Foster student stewardship projects.

MS Science Learning Objectives

6.1 Science Process Skills – The student will plan & conduct

investigations that are increasingly sophisticated &

involve a refinement of science process skills.

6.5(b) Earth’s Waters: Role in the Environment – The student

will investigate & understand the role of water in the natural &

human-made environment.

6.7 Watershed Ecology – The student will investigate &

understand the natural processes & human interactions that

affect watersheds systems.

6.9 Natural Resources and Public Policy – The student will

investigate & understand public policy decisions relating

to the environment.

Middle School Lesson Plans

29 Lesson Plans for 6th Grade Science:

What is a watershed? (11)

Why is the state of the watershed important to people? (16)

How can we improve water quality in the watershed? (2)

Middle School Lesson Plans

What is a watershed?

1. What is a watershed?

2. Boundaries of Virginia Watersheds

3. Play Dough Mountain- Create your own Topographic Map

4. Overview of Chesapeake Bay Watershed

5. Watershed Address Using Google Maps

6. Schoolyard Mapping Activity

7. Will It Soak Right In? Runoff Experiment

8. Calculating The Amount of Impervious Surface in Your Schoolyard

9. Stream Table Experiment

10. Cacapon Institute Web Activities

11. Watershed Investigation: Where‟s My Watershed?

& Runoff Race (Field Investigation)

What is a watershed?

Create Your Own Topographic Maps-

Playdough mountain

Middle School Lesson Plans

Why is the state of the watershed important to people?

1. Watershed Models and Riparian Buffer Zones

2. Introduction to Water Quality

3. Mosquito Larva Demonstration

4. Introduction Vernier Probeware

5. Collecting and Submitting Schoolyard Water Quality Data

6. Who Contaminated the Water?

7. Data in the Classroom

8. Discovering the Water Quality of Belmont Bay

9. Water Quality Testing: “How‟s the Water?” (Field Investigation)

10. Macroinvertebrate Study: “Who Lives Here?” Field Investigation

Wetland Metaphors

A solar powered monitoring probe attached to a dock or buoy, continually collects data which can be viewed on your computer screen. Data collected includes depth, dissolved oxygen, temperature, pH, conductivity, chlorophyll, and turbidity.

Integrating Live Online

Water Quality and/or Weather Data

Middle School Lesson Plans

Why is the state of the watershed important to people? (cont.)

11. Wetland Metaphors

12. Water Quality Interactive game

13. Wetlands lesson (Field Investigation)

14. Watershed Management: “Where Has All the Water Gone?” (Field

Investigation)

15. A River Runs Through It-role playing game

16. A Drop in the Bucket

How can we improve water quality in the watershed?

1. Don‟t Waste Water: Water Conservation Calculations

2. Stewardship Project Ideas

LiveBinders Collection of Stewardship & Bay Sites

Watershed Jeopardy

Middle School Teacher Training

3 days in August

learning, practicing and

refining lesson plans,

participating in field

investigations

Professional Learning

Community (PLC) meets

in January & late

Spring for ongoing

peer-to-peer learning

What we learned from MS teachers

Before Workshop:

• 15 hours/year spent on watershed ecology

• >40% (of 17): did not provide students personal connection to watershed or Bay.

• Teaching challenges prior to workshop:

– Lack of experience with field data collection/analysis, stewardship projects, Chesapeake issues, and "making it meaningful”

– insufficient time, materials, and ideas.

• Constraints:

– “Lack of time" (2)

– "Lack of materials” (1)

After Workshop:

• Confidence to teach watershed issues rose from somewhat to extremely confident

• Intention/likelihood to teach about Bay, use outdoors, research and/or guide student actions rose from very to extremely likely.

• Teachers are “extremely likely” to

– incorporate new lessons about watershed or ChesapeakeBay I

– Recommend workshop to others.

• Constraints:

– “Lack of time" (1)

– "Lack of materials” (0)

• Additional help? More tech. assistance:

– memory aids (2),

– schoolyard stewardship (1),

– computer-based activities (1)

– general support/hand-holding (1).

Modes for MS MWEE Lesson Plans

Location Effectiveness Lesson Plan

Classroom 87% Modeling: A drop in the bucket

On-line 80% What is a watershed?

Classroom 80% Watershed boundaries

Mixed 77% Stewardship project ideas

On-line 64% Watershed address using Google Maps

Classroom 60% Topographic map investigation

On-line 56% Introduction to water quality

Mixed 48% Data collection and analysis

Outside 48% Stream table investigation

On-line 42% On-line Games for Students

Classroom 38%Using watershed models to demonstrate importance of riparian buffers

Outside 38% Schoolyard mapping

Classroom 33% Water conservation

On-line 31%Exploring the watershed: Cacapon Institute e-School

Classroom 28%Calculating the amount of impervious surface in your schoolyard

Classroom 19% Role playing: A river runs through it

Outside 15% Intro to Vernier probeware

Outside 15% Vernier probeware activities

Mixed 11%Collecting and submitting schoolyard water quality data, "The State of Our Schoolyard"

On-line 11%Data in the classroom / discovering water quality in Belmont Bay

Classroom 8%Water quality: What happens when things go wrong?

Classroom 6% Mosquito larvae demo

Location Effectiveness

On-line 47%

Mixed 45%

Classroom 40%

Outside 29%

Middle School Field Investigations

E.g., Manassas students

study wetlands on field

trip. 9NEWS NOW and

wusa9.com, April 23,

2010:

http://www.wusa9.com/

news/local/story.aspx?s

toryid=100453&catid=

188

1.What is a watershed?

• +6% defined as a body of water - (68% / 74%)

• +16.5% “ as an area of land (1.5% / 17%)

• +11% “ as a drainage area (3% / 14%)

2. What is your watershed?

• +13% correctly identified Chesapeake Bay or tributary basin (12% / 27%)

3.What are the top 3 pollutants in your watershed?

(and how do you know?)• +24% learned in school (45%/69%)

• Other notable responses:

– TV - 17% / 19%

– Someone told me – 20% / 31% (…us?)

• +10.5% correctly identified N, P & Sediments (0.5% / 11%)

• Post-MWEE, ~ 2/3 identified at least one of these

• Over half identified other pollutants:

Trash – 76% / 59% | Oil – 62% / 49%

Plastic Bags – 47% / 25% | Gasoline – 45% / 35%

MS Student Views (pre-/post-MWEE)

MS Student Views (pre-/post-MWEE)

4.What can you do to prevent pollution?

• -9% said pick up or clean up trash (56% / 47%)

•Other notable responses

• +1% Recycling (11% / 12%)

• +6% Use less chemicals / fertilizer (2% / 8%)

• +11% Build buffers (2% / 13%)

5.What grade would give the Chesapeake Bay?

• -12% gave it a C – 45% / 33%

(Most recent report card (2009 - University of Maryland Center

for Environmental Science (UMCES)) gave it a C)

• “B,” “C,” and “D” responses decreased while “F” responses

increased from pre- to post-MWEE:

B – 21% / 17% | D – 19% / 17% | F – 9% / 28%

Middle School Results

~20 teachers trained in multi-day workshops

10,500+ students participate in field investigations.

Enthusiasm high among kids for field trips, but teachers

less psyched about outdoor lessons.

Lack of access to computer rooms limits on-line lessons.

HS Earth Science Learning Objectives

ES.1 The student will conduct investigations [calculating dimensions,

temperature; using computers, probeware, GPS; making charts, etc.]

ES.2The student will demonstrate scientific reasoning & logic […]

ES.3The student will investigate & understand […] maps, charts, [etc.]

ES.7The student will investigate & understand the differences between

renewable and nonrenewable resources.

ES.9The student will investigate & understand how freshwater

resources are influenced by geologic processes & human activities.

ES.11The student will investigate & understand oceans are complex,

interactive […] systems […] subject to long- & short-term variations.

High School Lesson Plans

1. Boundaries of our Watershed

Understanding Topographic Maps & Incorporating GPS

Connecting to the Chesapeake

2. State of the Bay

Issues Affecting the Chesapeake Bay Watershed

Data from the Field

3. Human Impacts

Creating Your Own Water Filter

Making a Difference- Local Stewardship Projects

Intro to Topographic Maps

8 Slide Powerpoint presentation

Using Google Maps to Highlight

Your Watershed

Zoom out

Issues Affecting the Chesapeake Bay Watershed

25 Slide Powerpoint presentation

Illustrate photosynthesis & Dissolved Oxygen

in Aquatic Systems using Elodea

Build Your Own Water Filter & Test water Quality

HS Teachers’ Takes on Lesson Plans Score*

Schoolyard GPS map 100%

Watershed overview, crumpled watersheds, etc. 100%

Livebinders 100%

Stewardship Proekects 100%

School2Bay site 100%

Cacapon 98%

How science helps understand watersheds 95%

What MWEE 91%

Create your own filter/probeware 91%

DO activity (PEREC web site) 91%

Elodea Lesson forO2 90%

State of Bay /regional issues 86%

Create Topos w/Playdough 80%

* 100 keep, 50 modify, 0 nix

High School Teacher Training

Format parallels MS teachers, but …

Teachers from varied subject areas

(Earth Sci., Env. Sci., Biology, etc.)

Fewer, more analytical lessons

Teachers advise improvements to

curriculum.

High School Results

~30 teachers trained in multi-day workshops

Over 1,000 students participate in field

investigations.

Broad range of students‟ stewardship projects, e.g.,

Stonewall Jackson HS…

High School: Online vs. Outdoors?

Stonewall Jackson HS teacher:

“The Ecology Club worked building trails & learning

stations at the pond behind our school & our next

door neighbor, Ellis Elementary. On Earth Day, all

of 5th grade students came [to our opening …]

members took the young students through a series

of stations, teaching about their local environment.

“I asked one of my students why she thought so many

of her peers participated in the Ecology Club. She

said, „Because we actually do stuff…outside …that

matters.‟ ”

Conclusions

Varied teaching and learning styles at both MS and

HS levels.

Blending classroom, IT and outdoor field

experiences is effective at engaging varied

learners.

Need more longitudinal study to see how

stewardship attitudes of kids participating in

MWEEs develop vs. their peers not participating.

It‟s now easy to foster stewardship, but when it‟s

effective, the results can be amazing!

School2Bay Web Resources

http://www.school2bay.pbworks.com

6th Grade Curriculum (+ individual lesson plans!)

Schoolyard maps

Students schoolyard data entry and retrieval

http://perec.gmu.edu “PODS”

= live Belmont Bay and Gunston Cove data

http://livebinders.com/play/play/1925

Stewardship project ideas, on-line activities, and much,

much more…