Children's Water Festivals -
Links, Speakers, Resources

 

Teachers!  Click on these great websites for materials and information suitable for the elementary classroom.

 

New Mexico’s 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.

WEBSITE: http://www.ose.state.nm.us/water-info/conservation/h2o-outreach.html#classroom

EMAIL: waternm@seo.state.nm.us                 

To Order by 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 brochure that provides a quick reference of ideas on how to conserve water.
• Learning to Xeriscape  a hands-on, problem-solving curriculum for mid- and high school students.

Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority (ABCWUA)
WEBSITE:  www.abcwua.org
In-Class Water Resource Presentations:  Grades Pre-K-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:
         1) the fact that we live in a desert where water is a precious and scarce resource;
2) where their drinking water comes from today and in the near future; and
3) 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

Field Trip to Drinking Water Treatment Plant:  Available to grades 3-6.  Buses and bus arrangements are provided free of charge through June 2008 only.  Other group tours available upon request.  To schedule a field trip call (505) 975-0036 or email at katie@experientialee.com.

Bottled San Juan-Chama Drinking Water:  Sample bottles are available free of charge to participating organizations and schools throughout the area served by the ABCWUA.  If you are interested in making this water available through your group or organization, or would like to distribute cases or individual bottles at a local event, please call David Morris at the Water Authority, (505) 768-2506.  **only available until summer 2008

Discover the Waters of New Mexico:  Grades 3-5.  Hot off the press!  Call the ABCWUA Water Conservation office for free copies at (505) 768-3655.  Published by Project WET, this color booklet teaches students about New Mexico’s water issues through maps, games, graphs and interactive activities.  The lessons weave water conservation into science, language arts and geography to make learning fun and interdisciplinary.  Consider ordering enough for all classes in your grade.

Albuquerque Bernalillo County Children’s Water Festival:  Grade 4 only.  Held each October (2008 date TBD), 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 March-August, www.waterfestnm.com.

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 at 314-0324 or email him at matthewc@bernco.gov.  Booklet provides activities, investigations and experiments to help students understand water quality topics and issues.

 

Online Resources, Lesson Plans, Websites

U.S. EPA Water Information  http://www.epa.gov/ow/  Look up information regarding local and national water supplies.

• Water Sourcebooks  Grades K-12.  Contains 324 activities for grades K-12:  http://www.epa.gov/safewater/kids/wsb/

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

Conservation Education, U.S. Department of Agricultural/Forest Service  Water activities for students and students:  http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/ce/

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/

 

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.

Click here for Rio Rancho Water News (pdf)

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.