Links, Resources, Speakers

Free K-12 Water Classroom Materials and Resources

Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority (ABCWUA)

www.abcwua.org


In-Class Water Resource Presentations: Grades 1-12. A water resource educator will engage each class of students in a 45-60 minute hands-on presentation that will teach them important concepts such as:

• the fact that we live in a desert where water is a precious and scarce resource;
• where their drinking water comes from today and in the near future; and
• what they can do to protect our water (protect meaning to conserve and keep clean).

To schedule a classroom visit call (505) 975-0036 or email at katie@experientialee.com.

Unique activities are presented for each grade level and classroom resources are provided. For activity descriptions and all standards and benchmarks, visit the website’s education page: http://www.abcwua.org/content/view/369/585/

Albuquerque Bernalillo County Children’s Water Festival

Grade 4 only. Held each October, students and their teachers experience hands-on activities in the five basic water themes: web of life, general hydrology and the water cycle, watershed/water quality, water conservation, and water and our society. Buses provided. Teachers must apply on-line each mid-March-August 1: www.waterfestnm.com.


New Mexico Office of the State Engineer

Brochures and classroom materials for grades K-12. Consider ordering enough for all classes in your grade. Many brochures are available for download online. Hard copies are also available. To request an order, contact via email or phone: ose.state.nm.us/water-info/conservation/h2o-outreach.html#classroom

EMAIL: waternm@seo.state.nm.us.  Phone: 1-800-WATER-NM

Coyote Tales Grades Pre-K-1. Two booklets (available both in English and Spanish) and a teacher's guide feature Coyote in water fables. Loosely based on tales from New Mexico's native people. They are fun for the kids to color while learning valuable lesson's about New Mexico's water.

Rio! The Water Detective! Grades 2-4. A fun-filled learning adventure that leads the elementary school student through our local water source and how we can conserve this precious resource.

Conserve Water: Grades 3-5. Published by Project WET, this color booklet teaches water conservation through maps, games, graphs and interactive activities. The lessons weave water conservation into science, language arts and geography to make learning fun and interdisciplinary.

Agua Action: All grades. A poster that provides a quick reference of ideas on how to conserve water.

Learning to Xeriscape: Grades 6-12. A hands-on, problem-solving curriculum for mid- and high school students.


Bernalillo County Office of Environmental Health

Project WET’s Healthy Water Healthy People activity booklet. Grades 4-7. Now FREE! To order copies, call Matt Cross-Guillen, Environmental Health Educator, at 314-0324 or email him: matthewc@bernco.gov. Booklet provides activities, investigations and experiments to help students understand water quality topics and issues.

In-Class Water Resource Presentations: Matt will visit your classroom and provide hands-on activities on water quality and health topics (see above contact info for him). All activities can be in English or Spanish.

Online Resources, Lesson Plans, Websites

Calculate Your “Water Footprint”

People use lots of water for drinking, cooking and washing, but even more for producing things such as food, paper, cotton clothes, etc. The water footprint of an individual, business or nation is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual, business or nation: waterfootprint.org/?page=files/home

U.S. EPA Water Information

Look up information regarding local and national water supplies: epa.gov/ow/

Water Sourcebooks Grades K-12.

Contains 324 activities for grades K-12: epa.gov/safewater/kids/wsb/

Project WET (Water Education for Teachers)

Grades K-12. A national water resources education program. Kits, booklets, curricula address water conservation, watershed, water quality and other water topics and on-line game: http://www.projectwet.org/usa/

http://www.projectwetusa.org/mas/flash/wet.html

U.S. Geological Survey, Water Science for Schools

http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthriverslandscape.html

USGS rainfall calculator

http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/sc2.html

Water Environment Federation curriculum materials

http://www.wef.org/LearnAboutWater/ForEducators/CurriculumMaterials/

National Groundwater Association, groundwater adventurers

http://www.groundwateradventurers.org/braintickle.html

National Geographic’s Perfect Little River Activity

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geographyaction/rivers/ga49.html

New Mexico Water Research Institute’s Kids Page

http://wrri.nmsu.edu/kidspage/kidspage.html

New Mexico State University’s Water Testing Program

http://swatlab.nmsu.edu/

Texas Water Development Bureau

These resources available from the TWDB for education and public awareness were developed to serve school-aged children and adults. Lessons and activities can be downloaded from their website: http://www.twdb.state.tx.us/assistance/conservation/education.asp

U.S. Department of Agricultural/Forest Service

Water activities for students and students: http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/ce/

Other Classroom Outreach

City Rio Rancho

Ruben Archuleta and Marian Wrage are available to speak to Rio Rancho schools.  Click here to contact Ruben or call him at 891-5020 x 3001. Click here for Marian or call her at 896-8737.

New Mexico Environment Department, Surface Water Quality Bureau

Click here to contact Jill Turner or call her at 505-476-1866.  She coordinates school outreach on topics such as general water quality and pollution, water cycle, non-point source pollution and surface water runoff, water testing (in streams and rivers, not drinking water), water conservation and wetlands (ecosystems and function of wetlands).

The Rolling River

This working model of a watershed can visit your school to teach about rivers and watersheds.  Contact the Ciudad Soil and Water Conservation District at 505-761-5446 or click here to learn more.