RiverLink

Environmental Education Program Goals and Purpose
RiverLink seeks to enhance environmental education in the French Broad watershed through water-based environmental education lessons in K-12 grade classrooms adapted from Project WET and EnviroScape™ that will compliment the NC Standard Course of Study.  Our lesson plans focus mainly on the relationship between science education and daily life decision making.

Our lessons will focus on:

1. The connection of technology to waterquality
2. the direct relationship between science education and daily life
3. student engagement in scientific investigation
4. science as a link to personal decision making

RiverLink will provide:
Trained and experienced RiverLink staff, interns and volunteers (college students or college graduates)
Field trips upon request (well in advance)
Most materials necessary for classroom lessons
FUN and educational lessons plans that will generate stewardship and inspire youth to be environmentally aware and active

Mobile Technology Classroom
The technology that this mobile class room offers will enable students to obtain a truly unique educational experience. The van will be outfitted with laptops, a plasma TV, microscopes, an immersion dome for movies, and mobile internet access. Interactive visualizations such as a fly through of the river or an underwater look at what lives in the river will be applications to use with this technology. Students will be able to enter the immersion dome and watch a movie on water in Western North Carolina in a setting like no other. The dome will surround students, bringing them into the movie. Aquatic insects can be displayed on the TV screen through visual microscopes.

RiverLink can come to your school or use the van as an outdoor classroom. This is a partnership with the National Environmental Modeling Institute (NEMAC) and several local collaborators.

EnviroScape™
EnviroScape is plastic model of a watershed that shows students the effects that pollution can have on water quality. This is a great educational tool that teaches the watershed concept in addition to point and non-point source pollution.

Students learn about different components of a watershed and get the opportunity to decide where to place buildings, roads, animals, and trees. Two waterways flow into a larger water body, which is representative of a lake, river, bay, or ocean. Pollution and runoff are visually apparent when rain falling over the landscape top carries soil (cocoa), chemicals (colored drink mixes) and oil (cocoa and water mixture) through a watershed to a body of water. Stormwater runoff and storm drain function are also addressed.

• Setting: classroom or outdoors
• Duration: prep time=10-15 minutes/ activity time=15-30 minutes       

Kids in the Creek
What is the ultimate field trip location that is low cost, convenient, fun, and educational? A river, creek, or stream! It is likely that one is located near your school, and there is no better way for students to learn about water quality than through this hands-on lesson.
 “Kids in the Creek” provides an outdoor experiential learning opportunity for students to learn about factors affecting water quality of our streams and the aquatic organisms that live there. This is a hands on opportunity for students to learn more about watersheds and their local creeks.
Students will be active participant in catching and identifying bugs and fish in effort to better understand the quality of their local stream. Instructors cover other topics ranging from what is a watershed to how land use influences water quality. Students can also conduct water quality for various water quality factors such as pH and nutrients.
The goal of this program is to help students become better stewards of these valuable resources by educating them on the ecology of streams and the interrelated factors that determine a streams health.
The “Kids in the Creek” program is a collaborative educational effort funded by the Pigeon River Trust Fund, with the assistance of the Tennessee Valley Authority, Buncombe County Soil and Water Conservation Service, UNCA’s Environmental Quality Institute.

• Setting: outdoors, local creek, stream, or river
• Duration: prep time=10-15 minutes/ activity time=varies with age group; 15-60 minutes     

River Of Words
RiverLink is implementing a program called River of Words and would like for as many schools and classes (K-12) as possible to participate in creating art and poetry based on our local rivers. Some of he submissions will included in a French Broad River of Words book and possibly be part of an art exhibit. These submissions would then be sent for inclusion in the international River of Words publication.

This program offers a very exciting and interesting way for children to learn more about their watershed, while also contributing to an informed appreciation of the natural world. It also helps improve children ’s literacy and cognitive skills. This type of multidisciplinary, hands-on approach to education nurtures students’ creative voices as well, through instruction and practice in art and poetry.
RiverLink is currently accepting submissions and has received some great art and writing submissions. Any art medium that can be reprinted in a book is accepted. For some great examples visit TUwww.riverofwords.orgUT.

• Setting: classroom, outdoors, or both

Our Dynamic Earth
Experience a thunderstorm indoors!  An outreach presentation suited for grades 1, 2, 4 and 5. Students will learn about climate and weather and the technologies used in today’s world by scientist to make predictions and prepare for disaster.  This show will present the principles of moving air, force, pressure, temperature, energy from the sun, changes of matter and state, properties of solids, liquids and gases, acid rain and climate effects on populations and geology due to human activity.  This program can be presented to grades 6 and 8 with the addition of global climate change, global warming and dimming and a historical look at man’s use of energy.

(Made possible by a grant from RENCI in cooperation with NEMAC)