Yajaira and Floyd Gray, ,Anna Denisse Fisher de Leon
Basin focus:
Regional SW
Specific area in
basin /
field sites:
Sierra Vista and Ft. Huachucha,AZ; Cananea and Naco, Sonora
Tucson, AZ
Summary/Goals: ECOSTART, a watershed-based environmental education program, builds the capacity of Upper San Pedro Basin school teachers in Cochise County to educate K-12 students about water conservation, ecology, bird and fish habitats tied to the San Pedro River riparian corridors, and the impacts of drought on this ecosystem. ECOSTART III expands an experienced-based course in environmental protocols and data gathering in the Sonoran Desert to include the additional teaching components on climate and drought, as advised by Arizona Governor's Drought Task Force. ECOSTART links the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, the GLOBE Program at Sustainability of semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas (SAHRA), the Department of Geosciences, and Climate Assessment for the Southwest at the University of Arizona, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, with Project WET at the Water Resources Research Center and the Water Wise Program in Sierra Vista, Cochise County, in teacher workshops, classroom assistance and student/teacher field trips designed to address community and school needs for improved knowledge and understanding of relationships between a geographic sense of place, ecosystem functioning, climate, and natural resource use.
The San Pedro and its associated riparian habitat represent a premier wildlife corridor in the Sonoran Desert region that exists within the framework of fragile surface and groundwater conditions. Competing natural resource use within the watersheds threatens the stability of the habitats. Water management officials and the community-based Upper San Pedro Partnership Water Conservation Plan has identified this habitat as a priority area and views educational outreach essential for citizen participation in watershed decision-making.
Water is a serious community issue because its scarcity in semi-arid regions along the US-Mexico border has impacted humans and endangered wildlife habitats and species. ECOSTART III's educational priorities are to 1) expand the existing program to include elements of Project WET, GLOBE, TOXRAP (Environmental and Health Sciences Institute resources), and the NOAA Climate Science Program on a wider scale and 2) reach more students by increasing the number of teacher trainers, and 3) adapt ECOSTART educational materials and activities to local community issues.
Activities and outcomes during past year:
1) increase public awareness and knowledge about regional environmental, water, and climate issues in order to improve and accelerate student and community participation in problem-solving and decision-making, 2) supplement existing materials and school curricula with a water, drought, and climate resource book, 3) build the capacity of teachers and students to apply science education to regional water and climate issues, and 4) teach students and teachers how to provide water and climate monitoring data to scientists working with the GLOBE Program (high schools). Towards that end, our proposal will create natural science curricular material that is culturally and geographically relevant to the population of southeastern Arizona.
As of August 2005 we have funding from the University of Arizona Foundation for ECOSTART for the 2005/06 academic year, with schools and teachers in Cochise County and Cananea/Naco, Sonora. ECOSTART has expanded it s curriculum to include use of GPS in mapping and water monitoring, climate variability, and change.
In 2006 we made a new contract with Pima Vocational High School to teach Ecostart to students looking for potential science-based employment in Tucson and Pima County.
Plans for the upcoming year:
ECOSTART III will reach teachers in the basin through two-day workshops (minimum 6 hours per workshop), one for primary and middle schools and one for secondary in the fall and spring in 10 schools, followed by classroom support and collaborative planning for 2 educational field trips emphasizing environmental (specifically water) protocols, habitat assessment, importance of riparian corridors, use of GPS (high school), and hydrologic and atmospheric data gathering. Curricular material dissemination methods include: Internet, a student radio program on water and climate supervised by teachers, conference presentations, and the ECOSTART Web site (udallcenter.arizona.edu) with information and instructional materials, and links to websites on a variety of earth science topics and field trip-related information.
Timeline:
Phase I (fall-winter 2005). The program will be initiated by a series of planning/information workshops to discuss ways of integrating the proposed science education materials, fieldtrips, and demonstrations into the school district's required science-math-reading curriculum. The program goals are to meet Arizona academic standards, qualifications, and testing requirements. The core training module of the program will involve professional staff trainers working first with teachers and then teachers and students in a combined classroom, experiential field-based presentation of the San Pedro ecosystem. Components of the ecosystem will include the geographic setting, hydrologic cycle, riparian habitat, and community conservation for sustainable use of natural resources.
Activities:
• Curriculum planning with primary and secondary teachers and staff to create teachers' and students' units of study specific to the San Pedro Basin and based on existing educational materials such as Project WET, Adopt a Watershed, Desert Museum habitat materials, the Hach water monitoring kit, and an orienteering manual. Web-based materials from EPA, USGS, NOAA Climate, GLOBE, and National Atlas education sites.
• Workshop on Sonoran Desert - Basin and Range Setting introduction, orienteering, riparian habitats, GLOBE training on soil moisture and weather, and the Project WET Program training on water and hydrology for teachers, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum materials and instruction on migrating pollinators and pollinator gardens.
• Adaptation of climate and weather materials into science curriculum from Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) on local climate changes, as appropriate for grade levels
• Classroom planning for student radio program on water and climate.
Phase II (spring 2006)
Based on the fall and winter workshops, Phase II emphasizes workshops on riparian habitat workshops, migratory pollinators, impacts of climate variability and drought on water/ecosystems, and follow-up fieldtrips to riparian areas.
Activities:
• climate and weather workshops, water conservation, atmosphere and weather observations and experiments, including the establishment of 2 weather stations
• Planning of school ecology projects
• Continue student weekly radio program
Project evaluation will be accomplished by 4 methods: 1) indicators of numbers of teachers, students, parents, and university students participating; numbers of field journals with field experiments reports; numbers of field experiments completed in orienteering, riparian habitats, climate, and water quality monitoring; 2) student workshop and field trip evaluations linking what was learned to community and home experiences; 3) teacher evaluations of materials, modes of learning, changes in student attitudes; 4) and student pre and post unit tests.
Develop a wider educational program with emphasis on water conservation activities based upon needs of Pima and Santa Cruz
counties
Support development of Project WET educational programs in Yavapai County
Organization Involvement:
Development of environmental education K-12 program based on Project WET, GLOBE, Desert Museum and Dept. pof Geosciences. Heavy emphasis on water and climate education with specific ecosystem contexts (San Pedro and Santa Cruz)
Organization Involvement:
Arizona WET Project, GLOBE protocols, and newly created place-based natural resource curricula will form the basis for our hydrology-related educational materials and demonstrations for the different grade levels; the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum will utilize education materials established for their Migratory Pollinator Training Workshops including their 'Desert Garden Pollinator Kit'. For students and teachers these resources provide the opportunity to learn by: 1)Taking scientifically valid measurements in the fields of atmosphere, hydrology, soils, and land cover - depending upon their local curricula, 2) Reporting their data through the Internet, 3) Creating maps and graphs on the free interactive Web site to analyze data sets, and 4) Collaborating with scientists and other GLOBE students around the world. With the GLOBE and CLIMAS programs at the University of Arizona, we have created training modules on soil moisture and weather.
Shared Resources / Joint Activities:
Yajaira's responsibilities:
-- 4 planning/information workshops to discuss ways of integrating the proposed science education materials, fieldtrips, and demonstrations into the school district's required science-math-reading curriculum in AZ and Sonora
--Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum workshops on migrating pollinators, including the 'Desert Garden Pollinator Kit' in AZ and Sonora
-- linking riparian corridors as a habitat for migratory pollinators with elementary and middle school science curricula
-- planning with team and teachers a Sonoran community open house or festival with Make a Splash with Project WET for May 2006
--planning and carrying out activities from Encaucemos el Agua or Project WET as needed for the above workshops
Organization Involvement:
ECOSTART, a watershed-based environmental education program, builds the capacity of Upper San Pedro Basin school teachers in Cochise County to educate K-12 students about water conservation, ecology, bird and fish habitats tied to the San Pedro River riparian corridors, and the impacts of drought on this ecosystem. ECOSTART III expands an experienced-based course in environmental protocols and data gathering in the Sonoran Desert to include the additional teaching components on climate and drought, as advised by Arizona Governor's Drought Task Force. ECOSTART links the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, the GLOBE Program at Sustainability of semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas (SAHRA), the Department of Geosciences, and Climate Assessment for the Southwest at the University of Arizona, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, with Project WET at the Water Resources Research Center and the Water Wise Program in Sierra Vista, Cochise County, in teacher workshops, classroom assistance and student/teacher field trips designed to address community and school needs for improved knowledge and understanding of relationships between a geographic sense of place, ecosystem functioning, climate, and natural resource use.
Shared Resources / Joint Activities:
ECOSTART III will reach teachers in the basin through two-day workshops (minimum 6 hours per workshop), one for primary and middle schools and one for secondary in the fall and spring in 10 schools, followed by classroom support and collaborative planning for 2 educational field trips emphasizing environmental (specifically water) protocols, habitat assessment, importance of riparian corridors, use of GPS (high school), and hydrologic and atmospheric data gathering. Curricular material dissemination methods include: Internet, a student radio program on water and climate supervised by teachers, conference presentations, and the ECOSTART Web site (udallcenter.arizona.edu) with information and instructional materials, and links to websites on a variety of earth science topics and field trip-related information.
