Untitled DocumentWATER: Water in Arizona, Teacher Resources
Macro Theme Area:
Education [Project ID: E09]
PI:
Jim Washburne
CO-PI(s):
N/A
Basin focus:
Regional SW, Rio Grande
Specific area in
basin /
field sites:
Verde Basin for first phase of WS Viz project.
Summary/Goals: This project is designed 1) to facilitate classroom implementation of water education programs aligned with state standards through human and material resources for trained teachers and 2) to facilitate integration of these programs to provide more meaningful learning experiences for teachers and students. These goals are accomplished by: developing and providing material support in the form of classroom resource kits for teachers; training pre-service and inservice teachers to use the kits and integrate them into their existing curriculum; and providing human support by training graduate students as water education specialists, who work regularly with teachers in their classrooms. This leveraged project is supported by a grant from the UA Water Sustainability Program (formerly Water Research, Outreach, and Education).
Activities and outcomes during past year:
In 2005 the basic and advanced watershed processes and urban hydrology kits were completed and implemented in Tucson, Maricopa County, Sierra Vista, and Flagstaff. All four locations now have basic and advanced water quality kits, aquatic life kits, watershed processes kits, and urban hydrology kits. WATER was advertised at booths at Valley Forward's environmental education showcase at the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix and ASTA's annual meeting in Mesa. 25 teachers attended a 1-hour training session at ASTA, and a total of 34 attended two 20-hour trainings at the Phoenix Zoo.
Plans for the upcoming year:
WATER will have funding through July 2006 and will early 2006 maintaining and duplicating kits and providing teacher training around the state. A NSF IMD proposal was submitted to restructure the kits and offer statewide inquiry training for teachers. This proposal also includes the option of expanding the WATER kits into New Mexico and forming a collaboration with Explora Science Center in Albuquerque. The watershed visualization grant from NSF will also help support funding of the WATER kits after June of 2006.
An NSF GeoEd proposal called Watershed Visualizations was funded for 2 years. Due to staff turnover, we are about 12 month behind but preliminary flythrough demos were shown at the SAHRA annual meeting and AGU. All the staff to complete this effort are in place as of Jan. 2007.
AJ has been managing this effort over the last year. Wylie Cox developed a new on-line evaluation web interface for the project although use has been sporadic. We will continue to move kits to locations where they will be used most actively. Checkouts in the Tucson area continue to be about 1-2/mo.
Organization Involvement:
Kerry will assist with kit development and training.
Shared Resources / Joint Activities:
N/A
Location: Tucson, AZ, N/A
URL: N/A
Pima County Natural Resources Parks & Recreation
Organization Involvement:
Pima County Natural Resources Parks & Recreation is supporting the WATER project by providing access to Agua Caliente park for field activities and by volunteering to house kits in the future.
Organization Involvement:
Lisa Elfring is the first PI on the grant. The kits will be promoted through teacher workshops and undergraduate courses offered by the General Biology Program for Teachers
Organization Involvement:
Arizona's Project WILD is housed in Arizona Game and Fish and is a collaborator on the WATER project. WATER is developing an Aquatic Life kit that draws heavily upon an Aquatic WILD kit being developed by AZ Project WILD.
