Learn with PRC

The Watershed Awareness Program is designed to inspire and inform students about watershed protection.

This classroom program familiarizes students grades 4-8 with their watershed and water health over two fifty-minute sessions. In session one, students will learn watershed basics, including their physical characteristics and importance to the ecosystem, as well as common sources of water pollution and their impact. In session two, we will explore ways to protect our waterways by building and polluting a tabletop town–and then cleaning it up!

The length of these sessions can be adjusted to fit school schedules as necessary. Both sessions cover watershed vocabulary featured in the PA science standards and PSSA.

This 45-minute classroom program, designed for grades four through eight, reinforces environment and ecology topics surrounding resource conservation. Students learn about natural resources, the waste stream, how recycling and landfills work, and how to recycle at home. Students end the session with a recycling relay activity to put their knowledge to the test.

Teachers may choose for their students to build upon this initial program with additional sessions, which may include participating in a school waste audit, organizing a recycling drive, or making recycled paper.

The “Recycling is Magic” Show

During this lesson, students learn the ins and outs of recycling and gain the skills to reduce litter and help the environment. Students learn about the hazards of littering, how to reduce waste, reuse materials, how recycling and landfills work, and what materials are recyclable. The program even includes a little recycling magic!

During this interactive lesson, students learn about renewable and non-renewable resources and how they are used to generate electricity. The program includes a fun activity where students are challenged to build their own models of turbines and generators using everyday materials such as popsicle sticks and playdough. The program concludes with a discussion of ways to conserve electricity.

The Watershed Awareness Program is designed to inspire and inform students about watershed protection. Students will learn watershed basics including the effects of human behavior and activities upon the watershed, sources of contamination, and ways to become good watershed stewards.

During the presentation, students will use an EnviroScape model to place mock pollutants in the watershed and then use water bottles to simulate rain. This allows the students to see how water travels through a watershed and how pollutants are carried into nearby waterways through stormwater runoff. The program ends with a discussion/demonstration on the model of ways we can protect our watersheds and reduce water pollution. This program may be presented alone or as an introduction to the Stream Health program.

During this lesson, students learn the ins and outs of recycling and gain the skills to reduce litter and help the environment. Students learn about the hazards of littering, how to reduce waste, reuse materials, how recycling and landfills work, and what materials are recyclable. The program even includes a little recycling magic!

This program is presented at a local pond or stream accessible to the school. Using kick nets and dip nets, students collect, identify and then release samples of aquatic insects (called macroinvertebrates) from the water. Students also collect water samples and conduct basic water chemistry tests. By identifying the insects and analyzing data such as pH, dissolved oxygen, phosphate and nitrate levels, the students are able to form conclusions about the stream’s current health.

This program can be presented alone or as a follow up to the Watershed Awareness program.

This is an indoor version of the Stream Health program. Instead of traveling to a stream, previously collected and preserved samples of aquatic insects (called macroinvertebrates) are brought into the classroom for students to observe and identify. During the lesson, students also use an EnviroScape model to learn how water travels through a watershed and how pollutants are carried into nearby waterways by stormwater runoff. After observing and identify the preserved macroinvertebrates, students use their findings to form conclusions about the water quality of the stream or pond where the insects were collected.

This program can be presented alone or as a follow up to the Watershed Awareness program.

Stream Stewards is a STEM based environmental education program for upper elementary, middle school, and high school students focusing on water quality. The program combines hands-on classroom lessons with real-world science though field trips to local streams where students collect macroinvertebrates and perform water chemistry tests to learn about the health of their local waterways.

Through interactive classroom lessons,

• Students learn about local waterways and examine how they are impacted by daily actions.
• Students use an EnviroScape model to observe how pollutants such as litter, oil, pesticides and sediment can be carried into local streams and creeks through stormwater runoff.
• Students learn how aquatic insects are used as indicators of water quality. Using identification keys and preserved samples of stream insects — such as mayfly, dragonfly and cranefly larvae — students practice identifying and classifying macroinvertbrates based on their tolerance to pollution.

Students then put their classroom lessons to use in local streams. Staff from PRC and Eastern Delaware County Stormwater Collaborative lead students on a field trip to Ridley Creek State Park where they conduct a stream health survey. Using kick nets and dip nets, students collect, identify, and release insect samples. Students also collect water samples and conduct basic water chemistry tests. By identifying the insects and analyzing data such as pH, dissolved oxygen, phosphate and nitrate levels, the students are able to form conclusions about the stream’s current health.