The application period for the 2010 festival will run from about mid-March, 2010 through August 1, 2010.
New this year! Albuquerque area fourth grade teachers are to apply online to the festival through the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority’s website: www.abcwua.org/content/view/238/440/
Flyers are mailed to area elementary school principals and administrators each March calling for festival applications and giving notice of the deadline for applications.
Applications always exceed the number we can serve, so please know that we will contact all teachers after the application period ends to let them know whether or not they have been selected.
If accepted, all fourth grade classes at your school must attend. Please note that this is an application, not a registration. We will confirm whether or not you are accepted no later than the last week in August 2010.
Teachers must attend a Teacher Workshop approximately three weeks before the festival to understand logistics and learn about teacher water resource education training opportunities that are available throughout the year. Each teacher will receive a resource kit that contains information and other materials to continue water resource education in the classroom.
All activities address multiple New Mexico Science Standards for the fourth grade.
Click here for the Festival Schedule.
Our goals for teachers...
… continue water education in the classroom using the resources and concepts learned at the teacher workshop and water festival.
… utilize new resources and speakers, adopt expanded curricula and modify teaching methods.
… take action to conserve water and protect water quality.
Our goals for students...
…demonstrate that they can answer the Big Water Questions.
…take action to conserve water and protect water quality.
…urge their families and friends to take action to conserve water and protect water quality.
Pre- and Post-Festival Student Surveys
Students are asked questions relating to the specific activities they attend. This is to measure the impact of the activities on students learning and provide feedback to presenters to improve their activity content and facilitation. Our long-term goal is that all students correctly answer at least 70% of Post-festival Student Survey questions. After three years administering this survey tool, student performance continues to rise. In 2009, 68.8% of all students correctly answered questions on the Post-festival Student Survey. In addition, the average overall score for all respondents was 16.8% higher in the Post-festival Student Survey when compared to the Pre-festival Student Survey. This strongly suggests that the festival has significant impact on student learning! For more information about student performance and other festival information, visit our Past Festivals page.
Evaluations
Teachers, presenters and volunteers provide feedback by completing festival surveys. In addition, each activity is observed at least one per day by independent Activity Evaluators.
Post-festival Activity
Students may go on a scavenger hunt to find the answers to water resources questions or become leak detectives in their own homes. The activity helps reinforce information they learned at the festival, with an emphasis on one or more Big Water Questions.
New this year! Beginning in 2010, the City of Rio Rancho will produce the Rio Rancho Children’s Water Festival. For more information about this event and the City of Rio Rancho’s education program, visit their website by clicking on this link: www.ci.rio-rancho.nm.us/index.aspx?NID=177
Free In-class Presentations
Experiential EE, LLC implements a large in-class water resource education program under contract to ABCWUA, delivering about 600 hands-on presentations each year free of charge to Albuquerque area public, private and home school students in grades 1-12. To schedule an in-class presentation, email katie@experientialee.com, call 505-975-0036 or click on this link: www.abcwua.org/content/view/369/585/
For more information about ABCWUA’s comprehensive water resources education program, visit their website’s education page by clicking on this link: abcwua.org/content/view/369/585/.
In addition, Experiential EE, LLC helped jump start the City of Rio Rancho’s in-class water resource education program by conducting classroom outreach in all fourth grade classes in Rio Rancho that did not attend the Rio Rancho water festival in 2007 and 2008. The City of Rio Rancho now handles these presentations.
 RiverXchange is an innovative, year-long outreach project that motivates New Mexico’s fifth grade students and their teachers to protect local water resources by combining a hands-on curriculum, computer technology and class partnerships throughout the U.S. and world so that students become “high tech pen pals” to learn about each other’s river ecosystems.
Participating classes learn about water conservation and water quality issues/strategies through hands-on activities, participate in a field trip/service learning project, and learn about water resources from guest lecturers.
Learn more on our RiverXchange page.
Special thanks to our project sponsors.
Project WET Workshop
 Project WET is a worldwide foundation that educates the public about water resources and its management, and provides resources for purchase. WET is an acronym for Water Education for Teachers. The foundation’s primary vehicle for educating the public is through a Project WET workshop, where attendees receive resources and one-on-one instruction that are not available to the public.
Free of charge & substitute stipends are available
This workshop will help teachers in upper elementary grades learn how to use Project WET activities and resources to teach the New Mexico standards and benchmarks in multiple content areas. In addition, water resource professionals will provide an overview of local water issues, and teachers will be provided with contact information about guest speakers and classroom resources on water resources topics.
To register for this workshop or for more information, contact Katie Babuska at katie@experientialee.com or 505-975-0036.
Bosque Education Guide Workshops
Location: The Rio Grande Nature Center State Park 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. You must pre-register at: (505) 344-7240, or email: Karen.Herzenberg@state.nm.us
The Bosque Education Guide is a popular curriculum to teach about the Middle Rio Grande Valley ecosystem. The new 2008 edition is 699 pages and has activities for elementary through high school. Topics include:
- geology of the valley
- surface and groundwater
- demands on the river's water budget
- natural history information
- human influence
- mapping activities
- web quests
A new chapter on "Fire in the Bosque" is an important edition in this time of predicted drought. The final chapter helps teachers plan service-learning projects with their students. A substantial background section and appendices including correlations to the New Mexico education standards round out the book.
Participants will receive the curriculum and additional teaching kit materials. The workshop and the materials for participants are offered through funding from New Mexico State Parks and Public Education Department Statewide Outdoor Classroom Program and are co-sponsored by the NM Museum of Natural History & Science and the Rio Grande Nature Center State Park with long-term support from the US Fish and Wildlife Service's Bosque Initiative Group. For more information about the workshop, click on this link: http://www.nmnaturalhistory.org/BEG/BEG_Workshops.html
To print a copy of the guide, click on this link.
Project WILD/Project WILD Aquatic Workshops
Project WILD and Project WILD Aquatic are national award-winning conservation and environmental education curricula for K-12 students. Activities focus on wildlife, wildlife habitat and fostering responsible action toward natural resources. Offered through New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, click on this link for more information: www.wildlife.state.nm.us/education/project_wild/project_wild.htm
Project Learning Tree Workshops
Project Learning Tree® (PLT) is an award winning, multi-disciplinary environmental education program for educators and students in PreK-grade 12. PLT is a program of the American Forest Foundation. It is one of the most widely used environmental education programs in the United States and abroad, and continues to set the standard for environmental education excellence. Offered through the Forest Service, Southwestern Region, NM State Forestry and EEANM, click on this link for more information: www.plt.org/cms/pages/21_19_1.html
Environmental Education Association of New Mexico (EEANM)
EEANM is a nonprofit organization that provides, promotes, and enhances quality environmental education by offering New Mexicans opportunities for professional development, communication, and partnership. Subscribe to their email list (Ecoed Listserv) to receive and be able to post information related to environmental education topics – even job announcements! Click on this link for more information: www.eeanm.org
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