One of our most important initiatives here at the LGA is to create the lake stewards of the future. We do whatever we can to instill in our young people a love and appreciation for the unique qualities of Lake George, and to teach people what they can do to keep the Lake (and any water body for that matter) as healthy, vibrant and beautiful as it can be.
The biggest way we do this of course, is on the LGA Floating Classroom. We also go out to schools, and offer stream monitoring workshops for students.
One other important way: teach the teachers!
On March 27 the LGA partnered with other members of the Champlain Watershed
Improvement Coalition of New York (CWICNY) to provide a free teacher workshop for 3rd – 5th grade teachers.
The workshop, called Project WET, gave participants a “Treasure Chest” filled with $150 worth of teaching materials for their classrooms. Funding for the workshop and Treasure Chests was provided by International Paper.
Project WET (Water Education for Teachers) is a nationally syndicated program that helps integrate fun, innovative, hand-on activities into existing science and math curricula.
The program provides a fresh approach for educators, helping them teach water quality concepts, such as:
– the physical and chemical characteristics of water;
– adhesion of water molecules;
– the water cycle;
– how water resources are managed;
– water usage; and
– the effects of water pollution on aquatic plants and animals.
The workshops provide the classroom supplies needed to conduct five of the Project WET activities. Teachers don’t need to spend money out of their own budgets.
In-class activities from Project WET can stand alone as lessons, or can be used as pre-field trip lessons before students go out on the LGA Floating Classroom.
If you would like to inquire about an upcoming Project WET teacher training, please contact Beth Gilles, the president of CWICNY, at (518) 668-5773 or bgilles_rpb@verizon.net.
