Fall Field Trips a Wrap, Now Booking Spring Field Trips

In October, we wrapped up our fall field trip season, and what a great one it was! So nice having students back to the Public Service Park to experience following the journey of a drop of storm water, first-hand. We couldn’t have asked for better weather either! A special thanks to participating teachers and all the chaperones that volunteered to make this engaging opportunity possible for students.

We are now booking spring field trips! Contact adee@sd1.org if you would like to schedule a field trip in April or May of 2023. We would love to host your school for a fun visit this spring! To learn more about field trips, click here. 

Schedule a Lesson 2 Envrioscape In-Person or Virtual Classroom Visit from SD1

We are available to present the Water Pollution Lesson (now Lesson 2!) to your class using the Enviroscape Model. We will also lead students in completing their Lesson 2 workbook material and have lots of fun exploring water pollution hands-on! Contact adee@sd1.org to schedule an in-person or live virtual presentation with SD1.

Lesson 1-5 Presentations: Now Uploaded!

If you haven’t checked out the newly uploaded Lesson Presentations in the Teacher Toolkit, we recommend you do! Each individual lesson page (found under the “2. Environmental Unit” tab) in the Teacher Toolkit now has a visual presentation available. These presentations mirror much of the content in the teacher lesson plans as a visual guide for both teachers and students to use when working through the lesson. Project these presentations onto interactive boards or individual tablets to easily share supporting images and clickable links to lesson enhancements with your class! Click here for a sneak peek of the Lesson 1 Presentation.

Calling All Artists!

SD1 Storm Water Art Contest

Inspire action, with art! Encourage students to get creative with knowledge gained throughout the unit by creating storm water artwork to spread the word about storm water pollution. Students may enter individually or as a class. Prizes will be awarded for both categories, including an animal encounter visit from Newport Aquarium’s WAVE Foundation for the winning class entry! Click here or see the flyer below for more details. Feel free to reach out with any questions!

Rain Barrel Art Project

Save Local Water’s Rain Barrel Art Project was created to promote the use of rain barrels throughout the Ohio River Valley through a creative and educational medium. The Rain Barrel Art Project is designed to educate people on environmental issues like storm water runoff, watersheds and water conservation. The Rain Barrel Art Project is open to artists of all ages and abilities. Interested artists must first submit a design for judging. The entry period for designs runs through December 16, 2022. A group of judges selects 40 designs to be implemented. Artists receive the barrel and technical assistance from the Regional Storm Water Collaborative. Creating a rain barrel art piece is an awesome way to encourage interdisciplinary learning with your students, specifically through collaboration with your school art teacher. To learn more about this creative opportunity, click here.

Make a Big Splash with Your Class!

At the bottom of each e-newsletter this year we are spotlighting some favorite "Big Splash" resources from the Teacher Toolkit and beyond.

Did you know soil sediment is the #1 pollutant of water? This is usually a startling fact to students since soil sediment is indeed a natural material; however, I think we can all agree it’s not ideal to go swimming in local waterbodies after a big rain when it looks like chocolate milk from soil erosion. Fish included! Click through the new “Soil Erosion: This or That” photo presentation found here in the Teacher Toolkit and challenge students to select which "this or that" situation is a better option for preventing/controlling soil erosion.

In an effort to continuously improve SD1's Environmental Unit, we want to collect your feedback on an ongoing basis. Anytime you have something to share, whether it be a program suggestion, presenter review or helpful resource for others, visit the Feedback Hub page linked here in the Teacher Toolkit to send those ideas our way! You are always welcome to email me at adee@sd1.org as well.