FLOW Education: Facilitating Learning through Outdoor Watershed Education

Session 1: Introduction to Geo-literacy
Goal: Explain the importance of geo-literacy for science and social studies classrooms.

Session 2: The Water Cycle and Watersheds
Goal: Develop an understanding of the water cycle and how it operates within a watershed.

Session 3: Mapping Watersheds
Goal: Develop an understanding of how to use GIS and mapping in the classroom.

Session 4: Water Quality and Watershed Health
Goal: Develop an understanding of how to determine the health of a watershed based on water quality parameters.

Session 5: Outdoor Learning Experiences
Goal: Understand the importance of outdoor education to promote student connections with the environment and community.

Session 6: Small Actions (local) Contribute to Big Solutions (global)
Develop an understanding of how integration of watershed education, outdoor education, and geo-education in classroom instruction can help the learners prepare young people to become geo-literate.

Course Project

The course project consists of developing an action plan to incorporate watershed and outdoor education in their classroom.

In this action plan, learners will develop or adapt an outdoor activity that aligns to the curriculum they teach and the geo-literacy framework (the 3 I’s: interactions, interconnections, implications).

In Sessions 1-4:
Learners develop an action plan using Action Plan Template and the Action Plan Rubric.

In Session 4: 
Learners submit a draft of this plan.

In Session 5:
Learners provide feedback, using the Action Plan Rubric, to two of their peers’ drafts and perform a self-assessment of their project.
 
In Session 6:
Learners incorporate their peers’ feedback, and submit their final action plan for their peers to review in the “Course Project Gallery” discussion forum. Learners will also provide final feedback to at least three of their peers’ final plans.

• Kathleen Schwille