Stroud Water Research Center: Education

A WATERSHED APPROACH TO EDUCATION

The Center’s education department interprets the research of our scientists. Our programs are multidisciplinary and oriented to a wide audience. We hope that through exposure to our programs and information, people will be motivated to become responsible stewards of freshwater resources.

Watersheds can be small, encompassing neighborhoods or large, extending over many states or countries. Everybody lives in a watershed. Because they have natural boundaries and are universal in nature, watersheds are ideal models or themes around which science, education, conservation, and public policy can be discussed.

Attention Educators

We’re offering FREE 4-hour stream studies for Pennsylvania public school students in 5th grade and up. Funding is limited: first come, first served.

Some scholarship money is available for non-public and non-PA schools as well.

We are scheduling spring 2013 now! Contact Christina Medved for more information and scheduling.

Reaching Educators, Students, and Their Communities

The Center’s educators have developed extensive resources for educating adults and students grades 4 and up about watersheds and their importance.

On-site visits to the Center, off-site programs at schools, educator workshops, and programs for community and conservations groups are just some of the available options.

Learn more about the resources available:

Questions About Our Programs?

You may use the menu on the left to learn more about our programs. For more information or to schedule a program, contact our educators.

Upcoming Events

Spring & Summer Programs at Point Lookout

Join Vivian Williams, Education Programs Manager, for a variety of workshops sponsored by the Point Lookout Farmlife and Water Preserve Foundation:

Wed., June 5: Letterbox and Tree Identification
Sat., June 8: Learning the Landscape through Letterboxing
Sat., June 22: Paddling the Brandywine: Searching for Macroinvertebrates

For more details and registration information, visit the workshop calendar.

What’s New

Have You Heard About WikiWatershed?

WikiWatershed™ is a suite of web-based tools to assist citizens in managing water resources.

When fully developed, it will leverage open source software and will function as an open collaborative resource for the community, enabling users to share geographically-tagged data, photos, videos, comments, educational curricula, simulation models and other tools on streams and rivers.

Learn more at WikiWatershed.org

You can reduce your carbon footprint with wise landscape choices.

Your Livable Landscape: Cultivating an Ecosystem Esthetic

Scientists and educators at Stroud Water Research Center and Longwood Gardens and colleagues including landscape professionals, a civil engineer, and an architect want you to know why your landscape choices are so important and how you can make a difference for the planet in your own garden.

The Livable Landscape web pages will take you through the changing notions of the ideal landscape and explain the science behind an Ecosystem Esthetic. Lastly, you’ll visit a photo gallery with beautiful examples of livable landscapes. Get started »

Tatnall School was among the first to visit our new education facility. Photo: Dave Arscott.

Students and Teachers See Stormwater Management in Action

As they helped plan the new education facilities, the education department kept in mind that sometimes the things most remembered are not what are spoken but what are lived.

Read more in Upstream Newsletter, Reducing Our Footprint and Other Ways We Live Our Mission

Model My Watershed to Go Pro? IGEL and Stroud Water Research Center Explore Options

The Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership (IGEL) at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Stroud Water Research Center are collaborating to investigate possible business models for developing a professional version of the Model My Watershed project, developed by the Center with funding from the National Science Foundation.

IGEL will recruit M.B.A. students who will work with both IGEL faculty and the Center’s staff to explore possible models for expanding both the geographic reach and the technical capacity of the application, with the aim of providing planners, designers, and other land-use professionals with tools that will allow them to model the impacts of proposed actions to local hydrology.

(Click on image to see full infographic or hover to zoom)

Educators Reach More Than 1,000 in Fall 2012

The Center’s education department was very busy this fall! Between school programs, conferences, presentations, and trainings, they reach 1,084 people.

Our educators are charged with interpreting the research of our scientists; they reach thousands of people each year, helping them become responsible stewards of freshwater resources.

Interested in booking a program? Spring 2013 programs can be scheduled now! Check out our student programs and educator workshops.

STEM Career Videos Launch Our YouTube Channel

The Center has four new videos spotlighting the diversity of careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

The videos, made by education intern Alicia McGlade of West Chester University, show how an urban geographer, engineer, watershed coordinator, and mushroom farm resource conservationist use STEM in their chosen fields. View all four STEM career videos at youtube.com/StroudCenter.

Education