A good indicator of whether a teacher training is effective is how soon educators plan to apply what they’ve learned with students. For educators at one recent PEI workshop, that answer was
‘tomorrow.’
“People said they planned to use these resources the next day,” says Emily Newman, PEI’s Lower Columbia FieldSTEM Coordinator. “We shared several quick activities that they could implement with students.”
The activities Newman refers to were part of a Bilingual Watersheds and Ecosystems workshop for South Sound teachers. Funded by the City of Olympia, the workshop is part of a larger effort to connect the Hispanic and Latino Heritage community in Olympia and surrounding areas to nearby nature and share Spanish-language resources with dual-language educators.
“This was a phenomenal training and it has me thinking about different alternative methods of teaching so students could have a more hands-on experience.”
— Workshop Participant
So, what activities got participants so excited? First, Newman kicked off the two-hour virtual workshop by asking participants to go outside and map water flow in their location, whether at school or at home. They considered where water would flow and how man-made versus natural surfaces affect that flow. Then, Newman demonstrated a ‘crumpled paper watershed’ activity that illustrates where pollution travels once different altitudes are introduced.
“We talked about points of pollution and they shared ideas about where sources of it might originate, such as litter, gravel roads, or, potentially, farms,” says Newman. “We marked those on the map and then sprayed it with water, and they could see the water following the ridgelines and forming pools.”
Next, guest presenter Clare Sobetski, Youth Education and Outreach Manager at the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR), shared the Water Resource Inventory Area (WRIA), a tool that allows users to locate their watersheds within Washington State. Sobetski also explained which watersheds are priorities for DNR, including those in the Seattle and Olympia areas. Pollution, such as sediment entering rivers from forestry roads, impacts critical salmon habitat and how they are mitigating those sources of pollution.
“Participants were very interested in showing their students that there are multiple watersheds and giving them a statewide view,” says Newman. “They were excited about using the crumpled watershed activity and the mapping tool.” Finally, they explored a Project WET guide that explained the foundations of water education and how those related to the activities conducted in the workshop.
The workshop was conducted in both English and Spanish, with resources in both languages. “This was a phenomenal training and it has me thinking about different alternative methods of teaching so students could have a more hands-on experience,” one participant reported in a post-workshop evaluation. PEI will host another bilingual watershed workshop for Olympia-area teachers in the spring.
