83rd Annual

Sunday, 9 February 2003
"Wandering The Watershed": Real-Life WES Experiences
Michael J. Passow, White Plains Middle School and Teachers College, Columbia University, White Plains, NY; and C. Murphy and W. D. Blanchard
The AMS "Water in the Earth System" (WES) program utilizes online resources to teach important concepts about watersheds, but our New Jersey-New York "Local Implementation Team" has enhanced this knowledge through kayak/canoe trips in area watersheds. WES participants and others gain real-life experiences as they explore portions of local streams, lakes, and estuaries in guided tours. They can expand their knowledge beyond what is available online through what they see and with specially-written descriptions of the watershed's geology, hydrology, and history. Images from some of these trips and examples of the informational packets will be displayed in the poster. Materials and images have also been posted on the Earth2Class web site (www.earth2class.org), providing a valuable resource for other teachers. "Wandering the Watersheds" effectively brings out the wisdom of a 1960s geoscience education poster that proclaimed: "The Real Classroom Is Outside-Get Into It!"

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