Watershed Education Program
The Watershed Education Program was piloted in Spring 2007 to provide watershed-focused curricular enrichment for Pre-K through Middle School students in the three school district within the Canandaigua Lake watershed: Naples, Canandaigua and Marcus Whitman.
The goal of the Watershed Education Program is to teach students about the great importance of our watershed using hands-on activities correlated to the NYS curriculum standards, and provide information for families about water quality protection.
This important program is co-sponsored by the Canandaigua Lake Watershed Association (CLWA) and Canandaigua Lake Watershed Council. Both organizations were recognized in 2012 by the Canandaigua City School District with the Friend of Education Award for their commitment to education.
Watershed Workshops
The Watershed Education Program’s environmental educators have worked closely with K-12 teachers to develop a variety of hands-on, activity based workshops focused on watershed topics that meet NYS Science Standards and local school district teaching objectives. Watershed workshops topics include:
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Geography of our watershed
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Non-poin source pollution
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Water conservation and the water cycle
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Land uses and pollution solutions
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Macroinvertebrates as bioindicators
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Chemical testing for water quality assessment
Stream Monitoring
Kids participating in the Stream Monitoring program learn about using aquatic insects as indicators of water quality and relative health. Students become the scientists themselves and determine, based on the aquatic insects discovered, how clean (or dirty!) the water could be.
Storm Drain Marking
In 2005, the Watershed Education Program received a grant from the Royal Bank of Canada’s (RBC) Blue Water Project to raise awareness about water quality issues through marking storm drains. Storm drain labels are adhered to the curb adjacent to storm drains and read “No Dumping, Drains to Lake,” which helps educate community members that storm drain water drains directly to the lake, does not get cleaned and can carry with it harmful pollutants. To date, nearly 500 storm drains have been labelled within the Canandaigua Lake Watershed thanks to RBC’s Blue Water Project and student volunteers from local schools, youth service groups and FLCC student clubs.