Water Edu-Kits a Big Success-All of the 200 Ontario-bound Water Edu-kits are gone! TUC sent letters out to let schools and community groups know about this amazing new education program during the last week of August, and it took only six weeks for teachers and leaders to send in their requests and order them all. The kits were sent to school boards, schools, conservation authorities, municipalities, and environmental organizations across Ontario with the exception of the Greater Toronto Area. Kits will be used by science, biology and outdoor education teachers, city and conservation authorities, environmental education coordinators, as well as Girl Guide, Pathfinder, Beaver and Scout community group leaders. The kits were designed for Grade 7-10, but also link to the Ontario science curriculum for Grade 11 and 12. They include water testing supplies, teachers manual and student field sheets, basically, all tools needed for a self-directed study of water quality, the issues of water pollution and stewardship opportunities in Ontario.
We promoted this opportunity through our website, and on social media, and word spread quickly. The program will now be used and tested in 50 different cities across the province. We anxiously look forward to feedback about the kits through our evaluation sheets and an online survey. In this way, we can understand the programs impact, strengths, and weaknesses, and improve the program as needed. Ultimately we want to ensure success, as we hope to launch it in other provinces as well as provide a bilingual version.
Thank you to the Ontario Trillium Foundation for sponsoring this great opportunity for Ontario educators and leaders to learn about water and how to protect it.
Here is some of the initial feedback we received:
“We are excited to use them soon, and can’t wait to pass along feedback from students and teachers alike on the program.”… “I received the Water kit today – it looks great and in a handy bag, too!”
“Thank you very much for the attached material, we are thrilled to have material for secondary aged students, it will definitely allow us to expand our education scope in our watershed!’
“We’ll definitely put it to good use. I’ll let you know how it is utilized and any ideas we come up with for other resources that could be developed.” “We are excited! One of the kits will be going to our aboriginal school that is located in an urban setting in the hopes that this will provide a means to get the students out and learning in a natural setting. Will let you know how it works out.” “We received the package today. It looks phenomenal and we cannot wait to use it with the girls! We started last week by talking about our local watershed and potential sources of impact.” “We are making efforts to encourage our Pathfinder girls to engage in scientific inquiry about the natural world. As an MSc student working with water quality… I would love to be able to engage our girls with the watershed. Unfortunately up to this point, we’ve lacked the resources to do so.”
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