Know Your Watershed is a program of the Columbia Basin Trust and is administered and delivered by Wildsight. A team of local professional environmental educators offers this curriculum-driven program throughout the region. Normally the Know Your Watershed Program is provided over two class periods as well a full field day for nearly 1,200 students per year in more 20 communities across the Columbia Basin. This spring, we are bringing the Know Your Watershed Program to you in a new format.
Due to this spring’s physical distancing restrictions limiting class attendance, Know Your Watershed Educators have developed an accessible online alternative to help you cover some of your Science 9 curriculum while meeting BC Education Plan goals of place-based, experiential learning.
You may be one of our returning teachers, yet to participate this year or part-way through a Know Your Watershed Program, interrupted by COVID-19. Or you may be a new teacher to the program. Either way, your local Know Your Watershed Educator is available to help facilitate online connections with your students, should you require assistance.
Is Know Your Watershed Online for your class?
● For any Grade 9 science student in the Columbia Basin
● Integrated with Grade 9 Science and Social Studies curriculum
● 9 online lessons with short, engaging videos and easy, hands-on home lesson ideas
● You can recommend single, multiple, or all lessons to your students
● All completely free
Columbia Basin Trust’s Know Your Watershed is a regionally-based watershed education program delivered throughout the Canadian portion of the Columbia Basin. Since its development for Grade 8 students in 2010, the program has been updated alongside the revised BC Curriculum, to address shifts in relevant watershed and water cycle content into the Grade 9 Curriculum. Big Ideas in the revised Curriculum supported by Know Your Watershed include:
● Science 9: The biosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere are interconnected, as matter cycles and energy flows through them.
● Social Studies 9: The physical environment influences the nature of political, social, and economic change.
Recent additions include an increased focus on Nutrient Cycles and on the predicted and observed impacts of Climate Change on water quality and quantity in Columbia Basin watersheds, including the challenges and opportunities watershed managers and water users may encounter when faced with these impacts.
A detailed Know Your Watershed program overview can be found here.
Best of all, the Trust’s Know Your Watershed Program is free.
For more information, or to connect with the Know Your Watershed educator in your community, contact:
Dave Quinn, Know Your Watershed Coordinator
250-427-5666
Monica Nissen, Wildsight Education Program Director
250-354-9655
