Lee County SWCD Sponsors Discovering Alabama’s Living Streams Workshop

Sixteen educators spent a profitable two days at the Discovering Alabama’s Living Streams workshop, sponsored by the Lee County Soil and Water Conservation District, held in Auburn on June 14-15, 2007. The workshop provided participants with the knowledge and resources needed to use Alabama's beautiful backyard streams and ponds for teaching aquatic science and water pollution principles, all correlated to Alabama Course of Study Standards for grades 4-12 science classrooms.. The Lee County workshop was one of six workshops held at different locations across the state this summer.

The workshop materials were adapted from the Alabama Water Watch (AWW) Stream Biomonitoring Protocols for Citizen Monitors. Living Streams offers teachers a flexible guide for teaching basic aquatic science principles and the effects of nonpoint source pollution on streams, rivers, and lakes. The curriculum links teachers with science education interns from universities and with AWW citizen monitors from local groups, both of whom provide assistance in implementing the curriculum. The curriculum is designed to not only educate Alabama youth on water resource issues in our state, but also to strengthen local partnerships among citizens interested in the protection and restoration of Alabama’s water resources.

Not only did the workshop provide hands-on experience, it also provided the necessary tools-of-the-trade, such as kick seine, 2-way microscope, bug magnifier cubes, forceps, and insect sorting trays. All attendees left the workshop with everything they needed to take their students out to the creek for an outstanding learning experience. Jayme Oates, AWW, Department of Fisheries and Allied Aquacultures, Auburn University, says, “Thank you Lee County Soil and Water Conservation District. With your sponsorship, we were able to educate and facilitate 16 Alabama educators in the ways of water conservation—and we had fun doing it!”

< Back to Success Stories