Program Support and Training:
Includes classroom presentations and field days; teacher training and resource development; youth monitoring, education, and service learning projects; and special events, competitions, festivals, and fairs.
School-Based Community-Linked Monitoring Program:
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Students from Indian Hill High School participate in Greenacres School-based Water Monitoring program. |
Schools can provide local governments with the data they need, learn about the impacts of land use activities, and work with others to protect and improve water quality. Greenacres can help schools organize and implement the project in cooperation with local agencies and organizations, to insure quality data collection. Staff works with schools and other organizations to identify funding, resources and potential partners; train teachers and students; and to organize workshops, training, and other events
Schools benefit by being able to provide meaningful “real-world” scientific research and reporting opportunities to their students. Students become better-informed citizens by taking active roles in community affairs and by working with their local government and community to protect local water resources. The partnerships promote positive public interactions between cities, schools, and community members.
Students participating in the project learn how to monitor the quality of surface water, analyze the results, and present findings and conclusions to local government officials. Students conduct tests at accessible sites close to their schools no less than once each month. They may also inventory riparian vegetation, wildlife, land uses, non point source pollution, sewer and septic systems, discharge pipes, and other physical characteristics of the watershed. They learn to analyze their data using EPA standards, and present their findings to local governments and organizations.
Communities benefit from the project in a number of ways. The low-cost data collected may be used to supplement and enhance local community databases. Results may also indicate potential water quality problems. Information can be used to gage the condition of surface waters and, if necessary, provide background information for modifying local regulations related to resource protection and public health. Students have discovered construction site dumping, sewer line failures, septic system malfunctions, and illegal discharges while monitoring. Proper authorities were notified, and actions were taken to improve and/or correct identified problems.
The role of partnering organizations is two-fold. First, the agency or organization agrees to receive the students’ annual report and presentation. This report is made at the end of the school year, after students conclude data analyses and compile findings and ideas. Second, the partner agrees to provide some funding and/or other support to the schools annually, toward the purchase of water quality testing equipment and supplies. Grants are sought to support school programs.
Each school agrees to monitor one or more local creeks on a monthly basis from September to May. Generally, streams are located in close proximity to the school. However, partner’s work together to identify streams where data is needed and to determine what types of data should be collected. Partners also agree upon a way to share information and to report any potential problems. Schools agree to recognize partners in all printed materials, oral presentations, and publicity generated by the school about the project.
Indian Hill Bulletin Article (12kb size pdf file)
School Visits:
- Classroom Programs: Greenacres maintains a selections of “Grab-and-Go” hands-on activities from Project WET, Project WILD, Project WILD Aquatic, WOW The Wonders of Wetlands, Healthy Water Healthy People curricula in addition to other activities staff have developed so we can provide classroom programs for grades 3-12 as requested.
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Field Trips: Greenacres have equipment and supplies needed to conduct stream, lake, pond, and wetland monitoring and will help grades 4-12 conduct field trips as requested.
- After School Programs: Staff is available to work with school-based clubs to conduct hands on activities and water-related Community Action Projects.
Teacher Training and Support:
Greenacres partners with other organizations to conduct workshops on Nationally known curricula including: Project WET, Project WILD, Project WILD Aquatic, WOW The Wonders of Wetlands, Healthy Water Healthy People. In addition staff conducts specialized training programs of our own. Staff always tries to fund raise to keep costs low, but most teacher training programs require a registration fee per teacher to attend. Here are some of the programs we offer:
- Make A Splash – This four-day workshop series is offered as requested. Teachers learn how to organize and conduct a water quality monitoring project on a local stream with your students, and how to share those results with your community. This comprehensive four-day workshop is designed to meet the needs of both novice and experienced teachers and to correlate with Ohio’s new Academic Standards. Each day is designed as a separate workshop: Day 1: Water Quality: The Big Picture; Day 2: Creating and Using Maps; Day 3: Using Testing Kits to Evaluate Stream Health; and Day 4: Measuring Stream Health Using Water “Critters.”
- Splash Connections – This is a four-day workshop series. Three workshops “connect” teaching about water to the Ohio Academic Content Standards by grade range (3-5, 6-8, and 9-12). The fourth workshop shows how to teach to the standards when monitoring stream and pond habitats. Teachers are introduced to hands on activities that work well both in and outside the classroom in addition to many field trip and community service project ideas. All activities used are correlated to the standards for each grade level.
- Water Properties: This daylong workshop was designed for Cincinnati Public Schools for grades 3-4. It focuses on the physical properties of water and is correlated with Ohio’s Academic Content Standards for these grades. This workshop can be conducted for any school system as requested.
- Aquatic Ecology for the Classroom: This workshop was developed for the Science Alliance Program and includes 4 half-day sessions. Sessions include: Riparian Zones; Stream Life; Pond Life; and Fish Ecology. Sessions focus on how to teach about water environments without leaving the classroom. One or more of these sessions can be conducted for any school system as requested.
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Project WET, Project WILD, Project WILD Aquatic, WOW: The Wonders of Wetlands, Project Learning Tree, and Healthy Water Healthy People workshops. Greenacres is an Ohio Facilitator for all of these programs and we can conduct a workshop for grade levels 3-5, 6-8, and/or 9-12 upon request from any of these curricula. Periodically Greenacres receives grants to partially fund these workshops and this enables us offer them to teachers and other nonformal educators for a nominal fee. Announcements will be posted on this website.
- Website Support:
Greenacres Foundation is the Webmaster for the new Greater Cincinnati Environmental Educators (GCEE) website. 28 local environmental education organizations are represented on the site and you can link to their websites via this page. This website contains information about teacher workshops and professional development. It also includes information about other environmental events including festivals and fairs, lectures, cleanups, tree plantings, and more. To visit this website, go to: www.gcenvironmentaleducators.org or www.greatercincinnatienvironmentaleducators.org
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