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Watershed Explorers Program

The Watershed Explorers Program runs annually from November to February and includes a pre-lesson and a field trip to a local park or outdoor space. This program is available to 3rd grade classes in Solano County. To register, please contact Program Manager Lee Ascencio at .

Program Goals

Watershed Explorers uses science and place-based learning to build awareness and understanding of local creeks and watersheds and their unique ecosystems, as well as good stewardship practices to help care for these special places. Using a curriculum based on concepts directly linked to California’s state education standards, the program offers local children - many of whom have little or no experience being in open space settings - a concrete, experiential introduction to their watershed and the life that depends on it.

Watershed Explorers is an introductory program and covers basic ecology concepts and stewardship responsibilities. The primary program goal is to help students develop an awareness of the outdoor, natural world. Program objectives include improving student’s ability to:

  • Describe the path water takes from source to sink;

  • Understand the role drought plays in nature and society, and practice ways to conserve water;

  • Recognize how stormwater influences our watersheds and the impacts of motor oil and trash;

  • Understand how to mitigate the impacts of their own and their family's behaviors on the local watershed by becoming stewards of our county waterways, including how to implement the "Triple R" reduce, reuse, and recycle messaging.

  

Standards Connections

Guiding Question

What environmental solutions might help living things affected by drought and/or stormwater pollution?

What Students Do

Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about how drought and runoff pollution impacts living things in a watershed.

Next Generation Science Standards

  • Disciplinary Core Ideas: (3-LS4.D) Populations live in a variety of habitats, and changes in those habitats affect the organisms living there.

  • Cross Cutting Concepts: Cause and effect, patterns, systems and system models, stability and change.

  • Scientific and Engineering Practices: Nearly all eight SEP’s are utilized in this program.

Watershed Explorers is funded by:
Solano County Water Agency · Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation · CalRecycle · Solano County Department of Resource Management · City of Benicia · City of Dixon · City of Fairfield · City of Rio Vista · Suiusn City · City of Vacaville · City of Vallejo · Yolo-Solano Air Quality Management District · Vallejo Flood & Wastewater District · Fairfield-Suisun Sewer District · Vacaville Public Education Foundation · Vallejo Water Conservation Program · Solano County Orderly Growth Committee · North Bay Watershed Association · MCE · Potrero Hills Landfill

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