[A young “scientist for the day” inspects a water bug specimen.
Water Wise Workshops - Fort Meadow Reservoir, Marlborough, MA]
“Water Wisdom - A Drop At A Time…”
The brainchild of OAR Director Paul Goldman, the Water Wise Workshops bring the lessons of watershed ecology to young children ages 6-12. Designed by Paul along with educators such as Pat Koscinski from Marlborough High School, the 45 minute workshops are taught by high school and college students - who I think learn as much as they teach. This year high school juniors Amelia and Amanda were the instructors for the four workshops given along the shore of the Fort Meadow Reservoir in Marlborough, MA. Fort Meadow Reservoir is part of the Assabet River Watershed.
The workshops are fun, engaging, and educationally sound. They don’t talk down to the kids - many of which come to the workshops with a pleasantly surprising familiarity of the water cycle, ecology, and biology. (Hurray for the public schools’ science curriculum!)
There were four programs this year:
•The Water Cycle and Watersheds
•Water Plants and Animals
•Water Testing and Conservation
•Water Bugs Mystery
The Water Wise Workshops are sponsored by the Organization for the Assabet River (OAR), The City of Marlborough and the Fort Meadow Association, with grants from Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials, of Marlborough, and P&G’s “Live, Learn and Thrive” Program.
I’ll be working with Paul this fall to produce a short promotional video for the workshops, with the hope of drumming up additional corporate and institutional support for the workshops.
Photos from the 2007 workshops can be viewed at: http://www.assabetriver.org/riverpics/waterwise2007/
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[...] During the summer of 2007 I covered the Water Wise Workshops sponsored by the Organization for the Assabet River with both photography and video recording. [Here’s an earlier article on the workshops.] [...]