Week Two: Willow Bend and Education

Hello water lovers!

I've had the opportunity to work with Willow Bend for my project. For those of you who don't know, Willow Bend is a non-profit organization that provides educational services aimed at building environmental awareness and responsible stewardship of our natural and cultural resources. In other words, they send educators to different schools to teach our youth about anything from ecology to volcanoes to water conservation.

Francis Short Pond

Now, these are not boring, lecture-styled presentations. Students are given the opportunity to have many different hands-on experiences. Last week, I was able to visit Mrs. Tapia's third grade class at Knoles Elementary with my outside advisor, Cassandra.

Our topic of the day was the Rio de Flag, a wash (or occasionally a stream) that runs through Flagstaff. At the beginning of the class, none of the students knew what the Rio was, much less why it was important. Instead of simply telling them what the Rio was, we showed them. We helped them create a map of the area around Flagstaff, and the location of the Rio in our local community. As we talked about the Duck Pond or how the Rio cut through downtown, many students began to exclaim, "I've been there!" or "I know what that is!".

Next, we went outside. We hiked along the urban trail until we arrived at (surprise!) the Rio de Flag. When we left the students' normal environment (the classroom), they became more engaged and interested. They were also given a hands-on opportunity to understand the importance of the Rio. Instead of us telling the students, "The Rio is important because it is a habitat for animals," they were able to watch as squirrels ate pinecones, and they followed deer tracks through the snow.

Once we were back in class, we recapped both what the Rio was, and why it was important. Then we left the third grade class.

Overall, I felt that new speakers (Cassandra and I) and a new learning environment really spurred the kids' interests. While we were outside, the students formed a concrete connection with the Rio. They conceptualized what it was, where it was, and its importance to animals. I only held one doubt: would  the information stick with them?



This week I was able to go back with Cassandra to Mrs. Tapia's third grade class to teach students about our local Francis Short Pond, more commonly known as the Duck Pond. We had the students begin creating a pond habitat project, where they added things like reeds and rocks. As students cut paper and pine needles, I walked around and asked them questions about last week's lesson. They recited the information back to me with ease (with a few additional stories).

Pond Habitat Project (in the making)

Since the kids' had a personal experience with the Rio, I feel that they were more likely to retain the information we gave them. From my experience with Willow Bend so far, I have learned that environmental education is not something you can simply teach. For information to stick with students, you must also provide an opportunity for personal experience.

The research project:

For my final project, I hope to create my own classroom presentation for late elementary and early middle school students on water conservation. I will need to work on narrowing down my topic, because unfortunately, I can't teach everything to these students in such a short amount of time. My time restraints for this project has probably been the largest challenge so far. We all have such high hopes and vast goals; however, we are only given so much time. 

I've determined that I want students to learn three things from my presentation: (1) Water is a scarce natural resource; (2) what water conservation actually is; and (3) actions—both collective and individual— that the students can take themselves to conserve water. 

While this may seem simple on paper, in practice, it is more complicated.  I want them to be able to apply this knowledge, and also, I want to develop a drive (or incentive) in each student to conserve water. To do this, I need to create an emotional tie to water conservation. 

Therefore, my goal for next week is to start developing activities that will both teach students about water conservation and provide them with a memorable, positive experience. 



Fun Fact of the Day: A person can survive about a month without food, but only 5 to 7 days without water. 

I hope you all are taking shorter showers and having a great time! Just wanted to remind everyone of the importance of fresh, potable water. Have a great long weekend!