Our Lakes, Streams, and Rivers
Experiential Education and Stewardship in the Lake Ontario Watershed
The Our Lakes, Streams, and Rivers program is a NOAA funded initiative designed to provide middle and high school teachers professional development and connect them to the aquatic education resources we have in the Rochester and Finger Lakes Region. It supports the adoption of meaningful watershed education experiences in aquatic science and stewardship and help to empower our youth to make positive impacts on our environment and precious waters.
We are seeking to build a community of educators who are prepared to address some of our most pressing environmental issues.
Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience Training
Summer, 2022
Teacher professional development teaches you about the Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences (MWEE) framework and how teachers can connect it to your curriculum. The training builds skills and knowledge to enable teachers to lead your class into the field to conduct aquatic scientific inquiry and stewardship.
The program is transitioning to a hybrid model, where an asynchronous online course, to be launched in late Spring 2022, will train teachers in the MWEE framework and partner-provided field trainings will connect teachers with skills and experiences needed to get classrooms to the water.
The Online Pedagogy Training Includes
- MWEE framework and how to integrate meaningful field study and stewardship
- How the MWEE can map to the Next Generation Science Standards
- Mapping of classroom work to the Great Lakes Literacy Principles and Great Lakes Action Agenda
- Connections to a wide variety of people, resources, and opportunities
- Development of lesson plans to implement in the classroom and field
Field Experiences Can Include
- Environmental Education on the Erie Canal with a 3-hour cruise on the Sam Patch
- Finger Lakes Institutes’ Stream Monitoring Network Program at Ganondagan State Historic Site
- H2O Hero Watershed stewardship from the Water Education Collaborative
- Rochester Museum and Science Center’s Science on a Sphere
- Paddling and aquatic sampling through Genesee RiverWatch's Deeper Learning on the Genesee River
- New York's Great Lakes Ecosystem Education Exchange Basin Bins
- Municipal water systems at Cobb’s Hill Park
Support for the Adoption of Meaningful Watershed Education Experiences
School Year
After training, the program supports teachers and their classroom MWEEs during the school year. Each classroom will be provided with:
- Funding to support the costs of equipment, transportation, program participation, and/or stewardship action projects.
- Mentoring from an experienced teaching coach and connections with other teachers to address challenges.
- An additional stipend for teachers who successfully complete an MWEE that includes all defined components and required program and NOAA evaluations.
Questions
Please contact program director Michael Boller, Ph.D. with your questions about the program at mboller@sjf.edu. In addition to being the program director, Dr. Boller serves on the Board of Directors of Genesee River Watch.
Our Lakes, Streams, and Rivers Providers
This opportunity is being provided with the following partnering organizations:
St. John Fisher University; Genesee RiverWatch; Delta Environmental, Inc.; The City of Rochester Department of Recreation and Youth Services; The Water Education Collaborative's H2O Hero; Corn Hill Navigation's Sam Patch; Genesee Waterways Center; The Finger Lakes Institute; New York State Parks, Recreation, and Historic Sites' Ganondagan State Historic Site; The National Weather Service Buffalo; and Rochester Museum and Science Center.
Our Lakes, Streams, and Rivers: Experiential Education and Stewardship in the Lake Ontario Watershed is in partnership with the NOAA Great Lakes Bay Watershed Education & Training Program.