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At the Missouri River Watershed
Festival students will learn:
How watershed dynamics concerns the
study and management of the complex interactions among water, land,
atmosphere, and the organisms living within the drainage area of a
river, stream, or other water body.
That watershed science is
multidisciplinary, related to societal concerns, and has important
impacts on how water is used by humans, plants, and animals living
in the watersheds.
That water is a renewable resource,
but water quality depends heavily upon human actions and natural
processes in the environment.
That management of watersheds is a
complex process that involves communication between people with many
different ideas, values, needs, and resources.
Students will investigate the
relationships between human actions in the environment and the
effects of those actions on the biology, chemistry, and hydrology of
water resources.
The Festival teaches about the
widespread repercussions of individual actions, shows students how
these concepts apply to many aspects of their daily lives and
emphasizes behavior changes by demonstrating how an action in one
part of the watershed can affect the entire region.
The Missouri River Watershed Festival
fosters awareness and elicits behavioral changes in youth regarding
non-point source pollution (NPS) throughout the Metropolitan Kansas
City region.
Activities cover
aspects of the communication arts, science, mathematics, social
sciences, and environmental education
The
Festival is designed for students (grades 5-8) to learn about water
quality as it relates to waterways. School
groups and teachers tour learning stations with an emphasis on water
issues in our KC metropolitan area. Each student receives a
Passport to answer water quality questions as they move from one
venue to another.
Subjects
addressed at the Festival include: rivers, watersheds, and non-point
source pollution, aquatic ecology, water quality, storm-water, solid
waste and recycling, wildlife of all kinds, bottomland ecology,
Stream Teams, and the natural history of the local site, as well as
the Missouri River.
Using
hands-on learning opportunities, exhibits, and displays presented by
agency, corporate, and municipal partners and outdoor educators,
students and teachers learn all about watersheds, water pollution,
and stream life and habitat - from the insects and fish in the
stream to the snakes, turtles and raptors that live in the riparian
corridor.
Activities
use a multi-sensory approach to learning, including auditory,
visual, and hands-on techniques that present concepts in several
different ways. Questio0ns and approaches that require
inquiry, problem solving, and the synthesizing of ideas are used.
Teacher
packets will be sent prior to the event with curriculum and festival
logistics.
The Missouri River Watershed
Festival goals are to:
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educate participants about NPS
pollution
-
emphasize
behavior changes by demonstrating how an action in one part of
the watershed can affect the entire region
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demonstrate how critical thinking
in system analysis can lead to effective problem solving and
decision making
-
teach about widespread
repercussions of individual actions and allow the participants
to apply these concepts to many aspects of their daily lives
-
improve participants potential to
become effective, critical thinking members of society who will
pass these values on to peers and offspring; thereby,
establishing a sustainable environmental ethic
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