NEWS FROM THE STROUD WATER RESEARCH CENTER
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Summer 1999
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Watershed Programs - Preserving the Future of Water through Education
Everybody, everywhere, lives in a watershed. Watersheds, those regions of the landscape that direct the flow of rainwater and snow melt to a particular body of water, unite all of us. The theme of watersheds provides a relevant context with which to educate children, teachers and adults about the water that surrounds them, the decisions they can make to preserve it’s future and the water research of the Stroud Center.
Stewardship of freshwater ecosystems connects us all across the landscape. To the Stroud Center Education Department this means helping all citizens understand their impact on and responsibility toward freshwater natural resources: from homeowners and their families, municipal officials, industry and corporate leaders, to conservation professionals and regulatory officials as well as teachers. To enlighten and educate these many diverse audiences is the challenge and purpose of the Stroud Center Education Department. It is made easier now that three staff are devoted to the job - - Jim McGonigle, Kristen Travers and Vivian Williams.
In December, James McGonigle, Jr. was appointed Director of Education. While at the Academy of Natural Sciences, he was instrumental in establishing an education connection between the museum and environmental research laboratories which included the Stroud Water Research Center. As director of Watershed Programs, Jim helped coordinate new education programs that reflected the aquatic science research. One of these programs, Environmental Focus, received a $240,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to work with middle school teachers over a three-year period in developing locally relevant connections to their life science curriculum. A four-week summer institute met daily at the Stroud Center in which teachers participated in a rigorous series of lectures, participated in field and laboratory activities, tested curricula and developed resource kits to be used in the implementation stage during the school year. "When I was a classroom teacher, I craved these types of experiences," said McGonigle. "We have the opportunity to be a major influence on the professional development of science teachers across the country. We can connect them to the latest thinking in stream and watershed ecology. We, in turn, get feed-back from them in order to make the programs relevant and exciting for kids."
Kristen Travers has been at the Stroud Center since 1993 and has helped establish many of the existing programs. One of these exciting programs is the Leaf Pack Experiment (see UpStream Fall 1997). Designed around a research technique of placing mesh bags full of leaves in the stream, leaf packs provide food and shelter for many different aquatic organisms. Through a business collaboration with the LaMotte Company of Chestertown, Maryland, the Leaf Pack Experiment Kit has been purchased by hundreds of schools and is awakening young minds to the biodiversity of streams and the need for their protection.
Newly returned to the Stroud Center is Vivian Williams. Vivian, who previously had worked at the Center since 1994, spent last year working with the Academy of Natural Sciences on urban watershed programs. These included developing "watershed tours" for the Philadelphia Water Department to distribute to rate payers as well as developing teacher education programs focused on the Wissahickon Creek watershed.
These three professionals design, coordinate and implement the rich array of programs, workshops, and exhibits the Stroud Center uses to reach diverse audiences about their water. Local teachers have used the Center as a place to improve their understanding of environmental science as well as improve the ways they involve students in learning science. Stroud Center educators have taken live aquatic insects and fish into local classrooms to provide more exciting and hands-on experiences that enliven the school day. Conservation volunteers and professionals throughout the state have been trained to sample and identify stream organisms to determine water quality. Hundreds of families have had fun learning about their local streams and watersheds by participating in our traveling exhibits. These are just a few of the many projects that the Center’s education staff have been involved in over the past few years.
The education programs at the Center have never been stronger. Now four years into the Schuylkill River Initiative, a network of thousands of people has experienced programs from the Stroud Water Research Center. The challenge now is the same as is has been since the beginning of our education initiatives in 1992 - creating ways to bring the latest research ideas, practices and findings to many people with diverse needs in order to preserve and protect the future of water.
