2005 SANDERS COUNTY WATER FESTIVAL

All about animal tracks	Learning from Critterman
Critterman gets excited	Everyone learns and has a good time
Lunch Time	Race to save the environment
How rivers behave	Dixon kids prepare
Its been a long day when the last bus leaves

2005 Sanders County Water Festival

Summary

The Sanders County Water Festival was celebrated for the third consecutive year on Tuesday, October 4^th at the Thompson Falls State Park.  We had approximately 135 fifth-grade students from all of the fifth-grade classes in Sanders County as well as several home-schooled fifth-grade students who had heard about this outdoor classroom event.

As we have done the past two years, our committee, which includes Green Mountain Conservation District, Eastern Sanders Conservation District and Avista Corporation, provided a three-ringed binder notebook for each fifth-grade teacher and student.  Because of an increase in resource and curriculum information, we have begun to change from a ½ inch binder to a one-inch binder, and all will be a one-inch binder next year.  These notebooks were delivered to each school in late August so that the teachers would have some time to incorporate the unit of study into their classroom curriculum early in the school year and have their students fairly familiar with the outdoor classroom station topics by the event date of October 4^th.

There were also two additional and related classroom presentations prior to the outdoor classroom event.  Jay Stuckey, a GMCD Supervisor, as well as MT Dept. of FWP Education Advisor, met with each class to discuss important fish-related information related to bull trout as well as explaining the “Hooks & Ladder” activity they would experience on October 4^th where a very graphic exercise, involving all of the students, demonstrated the difficulty that spawning fish encounter when they try to return to their native spawning grounds. 

There was also another classroom activity arranged for each class where our extraordinary 12 foot by 12 foot screen-painted canvas depicting the entire Clark Fork Watershed from it’s headwaters at the Continental Divide to where it pours into Lake Pend Orielle in Idaho.  Also included on this map are all of the major tributaries, towns, and landmarks along the way.  An interactive activity is conducted with the students that engage them in understanding the different ways that water travels and completes, over and over again, the water-cycle throughout the Clark Fork River.

The outdoor classroom event has the basic format of previous years, with a few station changes to be sure that the information is fresh and topical to this year’s students and teachers.  Attached is the listing of each station and photos of the students participating in the various station activities.

Over the course of the planning process, our committee offered many, many hours of donated time to make this event work so well.  In addition to them, we also had 42 volunteers involved during the actual outdoor classroom event, which included setting it up and taking it down. 

To measure the value of this outdoor classroom to the students and teachers, each was required to submit a one-page letter that shared their overall experience or they could also choose a specific topic that was of particular interest.  We have a huge stack of wonderful letters and pictures the students gave to us.  Some are hilarious, and others very insightful into what they had learned and observed.  They served as a great validation to how meaningful and appreciated this activity is, and also gives a big boost of encouragement for our committee to continue in this very worthwhile project.

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October, 2005

The Green Mountain Conservation District Mission Statement is:  “To protect and enhance the natural resources of the district and to educate the public about natural resource concerns.”  To that end, our Board of Supervisors have consistently, over the years, been very proactive and supportive of many educational programs, workshops and projects that serve to educate the public on why and how they can better protect and enhance our abundant natural resources in Western Sanders County.  The idea of an outdoor classroom event for all fifth-grade students in Sanders County seemed to be an excellent way to begin this process of education at a young age with the added benefit that these fifth-grade students would also share their new-found knowledge with their parents and family members, and added bonus to reaching more people.

There are a number of different outdoor classroom programs throughout the state of Montana.  Our Water Festival Committee which included our conservation district, Eastern Sanders Conservation District and a representative from Avista Corporation,  spent time researching some of the other outdoor classrooms to help us develop our vision of what we wanted to provide for our area fifth-grade students.  We also needed to decide what time of year would be best to schedule the outdoor event.   Most that we researched were offered in the spring, but because we wanted to incorporate work adjacent to a stream, there was a concern for unpredictable high water levels.  Additionally, we wanted to use local high school students as guides and the spring activities just seemed to be too much to plan around.  With a fall schedule we needed to plan the event before it got too cold, but also allow enough time in the classroom to develop other components of the learning unit. That seemed the more workable timing, so we have planned each of our three years events during the first week in October. 

The entire Water Festival learning unit is comprised of three major components:

• Teacher and student notebooks
• The floor map presentation
• The outdoor classroom event

We provide a three-ring binder notebook to all of the fifth-grade teachers in the county and all of the fifth-grade students in the county.  This past year we have also provided them to some home-school students who have asked to participate.  The notebooks are separated into sections and contain information, vocabulary, cross-word puzzles, etc. that relate to each of the stations that will be offered at the outdoor classroom.  The teacher notebook contains all that is in the student notebook as well as additional resource material that they could use during their classroom teaching.  The purpose of this notebook is to provide a structured outline of learning that will better prepare the students to have base line knowledge of information that will be offered by the presenters at each of the outdoor classroom station.  Our committee felt that it would enhance and expand the student learning experience.

The floor map presentation is a classroom activity that we schedule for each fifth-grade class about two weeks prior to the outdoor classroom.  We have an extraordinary 12 foot by 12 foot screen-painted depiction of the entire Clark Fork River from its headwaters at the Continental Divide to where it ends and flows into Lake Pend Orielle in Idaho.  There is a story-line with appropriate props that tells the story of a drop of water and the many transformations it experiences in its journey throughout the watershed.  This interactive activity is lead by a knowledgeable person who weaves in a specific, in-depth and relative vocabulary that includes an understanding of watersheds, tributaries, Continental Divide, water cycle, and groundwater, as well as many well-known landmarks seen throughout the length of the river that the students can relate to from previous experiences.  Having students really understand the concept and impacts of a watershed is a big challenge that we try to address in many ways with this activity as well as reiterating the various aspects in the other activities.  That “we all live downstream” is a theme that is repeated over and over again.

The outdoor classroom is staged at the Thompson Falls State Park.  The park is officially closed to the public by the end of September, but the MT Dept. of Fish, Wildlife and Parks is very cooperative and supportive of this event and bends over backwards to be accommodating to any needs we have.  We developed five stations and have changed at least one of them each year to keep the information both fresh and topical.  We enlist the services of agencies, and private entities to provide appropriate presenters for each station.  The students are divided into color-coded teams and have a specific schedule to follow that takes them to each station for the 30 minute presentation and then the day culminates with all students gathering together to hear a featured presenter.  Station topics that have been presented over the past three years include:

• Fisheries
• Watershed Discovery (a stream-trailer)
• Aquatics, Water Quality and biotic index
• Forestry, Fire and Erosion
• Wildlife tracks
• Wildlife adaptation
• Pond dynamics
• Lewis and Clark Expedition

Prior to this last year we have validated the students’ learning experience by having them complete a pre and post test that incorporated a “key question” for each station being presented.  It seemed a little unwieldy to define concepts and learning that way.  This year we have required that each student write a story and draw a picture that related to their particular experience at the Water Festival.  This has provided much more insight and documentation of the cumulative impact of their learning experience, and, it is much more valuable to share with others to show how effective this program has been.

The coordinated natural resource education program’s goals were to:

1. Provide an educational, celebratory format to build awareness, knowledge and understanding of water resource issues.
2. Foster conservation and stewardship of water and other natural resources.
3. Involve a cross-section of businesses, agencies, schools, non-profit organizations, children, teens and adults in a collaborative education event.
4. Promote lifelong learning and appreciation for our natural resources.

The fifth-grade students utilize social studies, math, geography and science skills as they learn about the water and related natural resource issues through interactive and hands-on activities.

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