Educators Sought for Watershed Course.
Beginning in July, local educators will learn how to incorporate lake and river issues into their curriculum through the Watershed for Every Classroom graduate course. This 10 month course, offered through the Champlain Basin Education Initiative (CBEI), will utilize national education standards and a combination of field experiences and resource specialists to convey content. Cross disciplinary teaching teams are encouraged to participate.
Participants will meet with geologists, historians, naturalists, farmers, and business leaders in Vermont, New York and Québec. Participants will paddle the LaPlatte River, conduct water quality tests along the AuSable River, understand the settlement patterns of the Champlain Valley, learn about invasive species and explore farms, fields, wetlands and forests. Common Core needs will be addressed.
Since 1992, CBEI partners have helped 700 educators assist their students in becoming the next generation of Lake Champlain stewards. A new web resource, WatershED Matters, features the teaching strategies used by recent course participants and may be found on the Lake Champlain Basin Program’s website on behalf of the CBEI partners: http://watershedmatters.lcbp.org/.
CBEI partners currently include: the Lake Champlain Basin Program, Shelburne Farms, Vermont ANR – Project WET, Lake Champlain Sea Grant-UVM Extension, the Lake Champlain Committee, ECHO at the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, and curriculum coach Amy Demarest from Our Curriculum Matters. Several New York organizations also assist. For further information, contact Colleen Hickey, Lake Champlain Basin Program by calling (802) 372-3213.