The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of State Parks has opened a new Watershed Education (WE) Program website to give educators and students in grades 6 through 12 new tools to investigation their local watersheds.

WE is an inquiry-based, interdisciplinary curriculum which hands-on classroom and field investigations modeled on professional research methodologies, students participate in data collection and analysis, community networking and partnerships, and stewardship and service learning activities.

WE promotes in-depth, multi-modal learning and understanding of water resources while encouraging students to examine their watershed holistically.

To participate in DCNR’s Watershed Education Program, educators must attend a PA State Parks Watershed Education Teacher Workshop. These workshops are taught by highly trained PA State Park Environmental Educators.

All educators who attend a WE Teacher Workshop will receive a copy of DCNR’s Watershed Education Curriculum. These WE Teacher Workshops are typically one or two days in length. PA State Parks is a PDE approved Act 48 provider for this program.

The first Watershed Education Teacher Workshop is scheduled for May 12 from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at Caledonia State Park, 101 Pine Grove Road, Fayetteville, PA. 

Click Here for more information and to register.  Click Here for other teacher workshops also available from DCNR.

DCNR’s new Watershed Education website provides other resources, including: a list of State Parks offering WE, a database teachers and students can use to entire the results of their field work, watershed maps and more.

For more information, visit DCNR’s Watershed Education (WE) Program website or contact Carissa Longo, Watershed Education Statewide Coordinator, 717-772-1807 or send email to: calongo@pa.gov.  Click Here to subscribe to the State Parks Teacher Workshop email distribution list.

(Reprinted from the Sept. 28 Watershed Winds newsletter from Penn State Extension.  Click Here to sign up for your own copy.)

10/5/2015