Columbia Basin Water Stewardship Education Program

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News

May 8 -

After school Pro-D workshops are on offer in May in Cranbrook, Invermere and Nelson. Go to the Pro-D Workshops page for more details.

April 21 -

Happy EARTH WEEK. Cranbrook elementary teachers (K-7) are invited to attend a FREE mini Pro-D workshop concerning the water kits on May 12 at Kootenay Orchards Elementary school, starting at about 3:20pm. This 40 min session will describe what the water education curriculum kits (free through the DRC) cover and how to get the most of them. There will be some hands-on time built in. Refreshments will be served to get you through a long day.

March 31 -

KTUNAXA CONTENT NOTICE: Please be advised that new discussions around the use of certain Ktunaxa content in the kits are under way. Until further notice, teachers are asked not to use the audio CDs for the Creation Story and the Months and Seasons of the year. Thank you and sorry for any inconvenience.

February 25 -

A link to a Green Street based resource has been added to the Links/Resources page under Water Groups. Operation Water Drop is a program designed to help students carry out standardized Water Quality Testing of local water sources and lets them compare the results to national standards and other sources. There are Elementary and Secondary kits available. Future programming in the WSEP will include more concerning water quality.

January 23 -

Updated lesson plans are being added now as downloadable WORD files. These supercede the versions found in the kit binders. (In many cases, resources found with the kits or in the binders will still be necessary.) This will offer teachers a chance to preview the lessons or use the latest ones, which include time guidelines, a Vocabulary list, better connections to the IRPs, more listed resources , including new online resources, more Extension activities, and additional notes and photos. Access is through the Lesson Plans page.

January 16 -

The Fall promotion period has finished. Thanks very much to all teachers and District Staff who attended workshops or requested an in-class demonstration lesson. Now the hope is that you will follow up on this by signing out or using your District's curriculum kit. Remember that you are always welcome to e-mail or phone Chris Ferguson (wsep@cbeen.org; 250-427-5054) for more information about the kits and how to use them.

Please note that the District #10 kit is being housed at Nakusp Elementary School. Contact Leslie Leitch.

Stay tuned for more information about Pro-D workshop opportunities that will be offered in the coming months. There may also be further opportunities for facilitators to visit teachers in the spring as well. However, the workshops offer the best opportunity to better learn about the kits and their use.

Website updates will be made in the near term, including some photos to help the Intermediate teachers with the "What is a watershed?" lessons. A photo has been added to the 3-D model page to help teachers orient themselves on the model. Additional information for lessons will be found by following links from the Lesson Plans pages. It is still hoped that individual, updated lessons will be downloadable from this site in the near future. Also, some hardware has been acquired to begin testing ways to improve transportability/durability of the 3-D Columbia Basin model.

October 16 –

Districts #5, 6, 8, 10 & 20 have been notified about Pro-D workshops being held October 19. Revelstoke has one slated for Nov. 9. See Pro-D Workshops for more information.

A new IRP Connection matrix is available through the Lesson Plans page which now looks at individual grades and more specific high school subjects. This should make it easier for teachers to relate their Prescribed Learning Outcomes to the provided Lessons. Some information is now also available for grades 9, 10 and 12.

September 26 -

Teacher requests for free in-class demo lessons are trickling in. Keep them coming! See the Classroom Demos page for more information.

The WSEP will be represented at the BC Rivers Day event at Gyro Park in Trail on Sept. 30th. Drop by for a chat and get a sneak preview of some of what the kit offers.

CBEEN is hosting Voices for Sustainability: Columbia Basin Environmental Educators' Symposium in Slocan from Oct. 12-14. The WSEP will be represented there and you will have the opportunity to share with other environmentally motivated educators from the region.

Efforts are still being made to secure Professional Development opportunities at the Basin districts, including trying to set up workshops on October 19th for those not attending a provincial event. If you feel you can be of assistance in moving this process forward in your district, please contact me: wsep@cbeen.org

August 31st –

Phase II of the roll out of the Columbia Basin Water Stewardship Education Program is well under way. This includes improvements to the ‘teacher friendliness’ of the education kits and a series of promotion activities that will make the Kits better known to Columbia Basin teachers. A large thanks to the Columbia Basin Trust for their continued support of this program.

Improvements: The previous single kit has been broken down into three kits to cover Primary, Intermediate and Senior grades. The contents have been rationalized to be specific to each group, with an aim to make them less cumbersome to handle. A few items remain as one-offs for the entire package. See the Kit Resources for more about these changes.

Kit Promotion: CBEEN wants all Basin teachers to know more about this valuable resource which is readily available through your DRCs. A multi-pronged information program is being undertaken.

You may have already received a small brochure providing essential information about the kits and directing you to this web site.

This web site will become the focal point for keeping teachers up to date on the latest developments and improvements to the WSEP kits.
This fall, at no cost, CBEEN will be providing facilitators (fellow qualified BC teachers in fact) to visit one intermediate and one senior class at each Basin school. Please see the Classroom Demo section for more on how to set this up.

CBEEN will also be conducting several Pro-D Workshops throughout the Basin to further educate teachers on their use of the kits. Please see the Pro-D section for more on these opportunities.