River of Words: For Educators

Resources | Regional Coordinators | Teacher of the Year | Curricula

Teachers are the key to River of Words' success and wide-spread implementation. From the beginning, we have sought to support and honor their work, and to further their professional development and connection to their communities. River of Words conducts educator training workshops around the country (and abroad, too), often at the invitation of a school district, and usually in cooperation with a local conservation or arts organization. These hands-on workshops teach classroom teachers, park rangers, 4-H and Scout leaders and other educators how to work together, often across disciplinary lines, utilizing a curriculum that integrates outdoor observation, investigation and journeying with core subjects like English, math, science and social studies, as well as the arts.

Another key to ROW's success is the integrated "Watershed Explorer's" curriculum materials that incorporate natural sciences into an arts and letters format. Working with language skills, art and science, ROW also effectively leverages history and culture into the mix - learning about your watershed means learning why people settled there, who they were, how they managed (or didn't) their resources, what poems, songs, art and legends the watershed has inspired, and so on.

View the world through a bee's eye!
andygiger.com/science/beye/beyehome.html

Track bird and ocean creature's migration from space in real time on this NASA site
www.signalsofspring.net/index.html

EPA's Surf Your Watershed-US students can type a zipcode to find their watershed
cfpub.epa.gov/surf/locate/

Exploratorium-SF's wonderful hands-on science and art museum has loads of cool stuff
www.exploratorium.edu

Kids and adults from around the world draw, paint and photograph their favorite trees
www.nyu.edu/projects/julian/projects.html

Lawrence Hall of Science-Lots of experiments, activities & projects
www.lawrencehallofscience.org/kids

US students can type in a zipcode and see field guides, maps and more for their location
www.enature.com

Natural History of North America
www.nearctica.com

Click on a map of the world and go on a Sound Safari
www.wildsanctuary.com/frameset.html

Adopt-a-Watershed, a comprehensive place-based education curricula
www.adopt-a-watershed.org

Center for Ecoliteracy-school gardens, creek restoration, collaboration ideas, and more!
www.ecoliteracy.org

What's a Watershed?
www.ctic.purdue.edu/KYW/glossary/whatisaws.html

Orion Society-quality publications and nature-based curricula
www.orionsociety.org

Orion for Educators: www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/education/

All Species Project
www.allspecies.org

Bioneers-visionary and practical ideas for restoring the Earth
www.bioneers.org

State Ed & Env. Roundtable-the environment as in integrating context for education
www.seer.org

US EPA's environmental education site
www.epa.gov/enviroed/

Give Water a Hand-action programs for student-led community projects
www.uwex.edu/erc/gwah/

European environmental education resources
www.fee-international.org/en

Environmental education in Spanish
www.cuartos.org.mx

NAAEE's (N. American Association for Environmental Education) online resources
eelink.net

Integrating math into outdoor education, especially good section on evaluation
www.nationalmathtrail.org

Here are some terrific resources for learning about Bay Area creeks, watersheds and the Bay-Delta Estuary system:

General Creek/Estuary/Watershed Information:

San Francisco Estuary Project
Extensive background information of Bay/Delta Estuary, 2008 State of the Estuary report.

Oakland Museum's Guide to San Francisco Bay Area Creeks
Includes downloadable maps (GIS versions, too!), creek finder tools, ecological information and much more.

NOOA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
Good overview of estuaries, huge selection of free, downloadable lesson plans for middle and high school teachers, tied to national standards.

Friends of Five Creeks
Good information on the natural history of local East Bay creeks, current monitoring data on the health of individual creeks, great archive of historical creek maps, list creek walks and volunteer clean-up projects.

The Watershed Project
Good background info on watersheds, local programs and projects.

Urban Creeks Council
Information about threats to local creeks, restoration projects, riparian plants and much more.

US Environmental Protection Agency "Surf Your Watershed"
Just type in your zipcode and get current information about the state of your local watershed.

The Bay Institute
Good overview of San Francisco Bay and Delta.

Save the Bay
Free, downloadable watershed curricula for grades 4-12; tied to state standards.

Resources for individual creeks:

The Ecology Center
Website provides information about projects on individual creeks.

For an interesting perspective on education, read From Socrates to Miss Crabtree: Teaching Through the Ages

River of Words^® · 933 Parker St. #38 · Berkeley, CA 94710 USA
info@riverofwords.org · Phone:510-548-7636 · Fax:510-548-2095