16 educators experience the Lake Champlain Basin in Watershed for Every Classroom program

A group of 16 educators recently participated in Watershed for Every Classroom (WEC), a professional development experience for K-12 educators in the Lake Champlain Basin. The program kicked off with a four-day summer intensive that brought educators on an immersive tour across the watershed. From the summit of Mount Philo in Vermont to the waters of New York’s Ausable River and beyond, the group dove deep into the ecology, geology, natural history and cultural heritage of the region, with a focus on bringing place-based learning back to their classrooms.

This year marks the first time WEC has run since 2019. A program whose strengths lie in continuity of working relationships, the Covid-19 pandemic halted the momentum WEC had gained year over year. Yet members of the Champlain Basin Education Initiative (CBEI), a consortium of environmental and place-based education groups, rallied together to revive the program in 2024, and the summer intensive session proved immensely valuable to the participating educators.

The first day focused on the interfacing of land and water in shaping the Lake Champlain watershed. The group of educators met LCBP Education and Outreach staff and CBEI partners at Shelburne Farms, where they toured the property and learned about best management practices for dairy farms from Sam Dixon, Dairy Farm Manager since 1996. After lunch the group braved the July heat for a trip up Mt. Philo, where former Chair of Geology at the University of Vermont, Dr. Charlotte Mehrtens, discussed the geologic processes that continue to shape the watershed. The scheduled evening paddle on the LaPlatte River was unfortunately postponed owing to high flow and debris from recent flooding.

Day two brought the teachers and LCBP staff to the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum where they rowed long boats, explored the giant Lake Champlain watershed map, learned about history of the Champlain Valley over time from LCMM Director Chris Sabick, and perused exhibits before driving to Saranac Lake. There, the group visited an Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation site to learn about population stability and the impacts of climate change on nesting loons. On the third day, educators practiced stream sampling methods on the West Branch of the Ausable River with the Lake Champlain Sea Grant team from UVM and SUNY, then spent an afternoon with a youth climate change panel at the Wild Center in Tupper Lake, New York.

The fourth and final day brought the group back to Vermont for a morning trip on the University of Vermont R/V Marcelle Melosira, a stop into the LCBP’s Resource Room in the ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain to explore teacher resources, a guided stormwater sites walk, and finally a quiet sail out of Burlington’s Community Sailing Center.

Participants included teachers from Otter Creek, East Creek, the Lamoille and the Saranac River watersheds, and from just over the divide in the White River watershed uplands. This WEC experience was also enriched through a gathering of Watershed for Every Classroom alumni who emphasized the importance of teaching outside in the fields, streams and along the Lake so that students are truly immersed in their watershed, making stronger connections as to how our actions on the land impact all things downstream. A visiting teacher team from Hawaii led by Dr. Kay Fukuda, Program Director for the University of Hawaii’s PLACES program, also added rich content and an opportunity for cultural exchanges, especially regarding water and land use topics.

The stories of the Lake Champlain Basin offer multiple ways to teach all subjects; engage students in learning in their community; and provide a way to integrate content, service, and a sense of belonging to one’s home place. This year’s summer intensive experience provided educators with in-depth understanding of the Lake Champlain watershed, its communities, the challenges it faces, and place-based solutions that teachers will bring back to the classroom—and bring their classrooms out into.