Water Education in Santa Cruz County
“Our Water Works in Santa Cruz County, An Activity Book About Our Fresh Water Resources” is a fun and useful activity booklet about our local water resources. You can download the 20 page booklet for viewing and/or printing by clicking on the image below.
- The City of Watsonville provides curriculum, education supply boxes, presentations, and water education field trips to the Corralitos Creek, water treatment plants, waste water treatment/recycling plant, and the wetlands for 4th through 6th grades in the City limits. See http://www.ci.watsonville.ca.us/publicworks/environmentaled/index.html or call (831)768-3107 for more information.
- The Soquel Creek Water District provides free presentations, curriculum, maps, workbooks, and field trips to local wells and treatment plants. Many of the schools are within walking distance of a water well which makes an easy field trip. See http://www.soquelcreekwater.org/content/water-education-program for more information.
- The City of Santa Cruz provides free maps, curriculum, and field trips to Loch Lomond. See http://www.cityofsantacruz.com/index.aspx?page=412 or call (831) 420-5230 for more information.
- The City of Scotts Valley provides tours of the waste water recycling plant and the Scotts Valley Water District offers free water conservation workbooks for teachers. See http://www.svwd.org/index/index/pg82559 or call (831) 438-2363 for more information.
- The San Lorenzo Valley Water District offers free activity booklets to teachers and provides water education grants to teachers and organizations. See http://www.slvwd.com/education.htm or call (831) 338-2153 for more information.
Additional Resources
Water is such a critical issue and an integral part of the Santa Cruz County region. Conservation of water resources can be taught as soon as a child learns how to turn on the faucet and continues into the classroom. The following water-education websites are great resources for teaching about water awareness.
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Water has a site for teachers and parents with lesson plans and interactive computer games that could be used in the classroom. http://water.epa.gov/learn/resources/.
- The California Department of Water Resources has links to other free educational resources about water at www.water.ca.gov/education/. Free curriculum, workbooks, maps, classroom posters and games are available to California teachers by clicking on the “Water Facts and Fun” link, or call (916) 653-9892.
- www.saveourh2o.org has a “For Kids” section with great links that teachers can use, such as the water conservation pledge.
- Water is a big topic in many of the units published by the California Environmental Education Initiative (EEI). The K-12th grade curriculum is comprised of 85 units teaching select Science and History-Social Science academic standards. Each EEI Curriculum unit teaches these standards to mastery using a unique set of California Environmental Principles and Concepts. www.californiaEEI.org
- The U.S. Department of Interior Bureau of Reclamation has a series of teacher lesson plans available online as part of the WaterShare program. www.usbr.gov/mp/watershare/resources/lessonplans.html