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We’re Back! In-School Programs Begin Again

The North and South Rivers Watershed Association has resumed bringing water education back to schools. After a long hiatus, the NSRWA is once again offering one of its largest in-school programs to local South Shore area elementary schools! For more than a decade, the in-school program entitled Water All Around You has engaged thousands of elementary aged students in fun and hands-on educational activities. Part of the WaterSmart program involves students in many activities including building a water filter, a water conservation game, interactive surface and groundwater models, and students even participate in a water taste test. This program is a fun way to engage students in meaningful water education that will benefit their local environment, themselves, their homes, and their communities! The NSRWA is excited to continue offering this program to all of our local partnered towns and respective schools.

Virtual WaterSMART Videos

During the initial phases of the pandemic, in place of the in-school WaterSmart school programs, the NSRWA partnered with Harbor Media to produce quality educational resources for South Shore teachers and students. Through several fun and informative episodes, at home activities, and a multi-lesson curriculum, students made discoveries about their own watersheds within their communities. The NSRWA always works hard to promote stewardship in the future generations of the South Shore, and the 2020-2021 school year was no exception.

Take a look at the first four episodes in the series below!

Episode 1: What is a Watershed?

Episode 2: How We Impact Our Watershed

Episode 3: Water Beneath Our Feet

Episode 4: How We Get Clean Water

Want to see more programs like this? Please make a gift to the NSRWA to protect local waters.

How do we get clean water at home? Where does the dirty water go… and how does it get treated? What is a watershed… and why is it important?

The Water All Around You program is here to answers these questions and more. And we do so by letting South Shore students learn first-hand through fun, interactive lessons. Every year more than 2,500 South Shore students learn how they can protect their local watershed.

“All together, [Water All Around You] tells a story, and the best part is that it’s so tied to the curriculum and leads to such wonderful conversations in the classroom afterwards.
~ Melinda Soliwada, Pembroke Elementary Teacher

Water is a valuable resource, especially here on the South Shore, so it’s important to use it wisely. Water All Around You really helps students understand how they can help to keep their local water clean and learn how to conserve it – for now and for the future.

The NSRWA is adapting to the changing educational climate by continuing to offer their popular Water All Around You program to local South Shore students. “Though we can’t interact with the students in their schools right now, we can still engage them in meaningful and fun science related activities.” said NSRWA Environmental Educator Brian Taylor. “By developing a virtual curriculum, we will be able to provide our water education activities to our partnered towns and schools. One positive takeaway from this is we will continue to build these resources going forward, allowing us to expand our reach, even when we’re back in school. We are glad technology allows us to continue to be a resource for teachers during this time.” The NSRWA has already sent out its first of several watershed related educational supplements to teachers. This is just another example of how a local grassroots non-profit is adjusting, adapting, and continuing its hard work and mission.

The Water All Around You school program is sponsored by WaterSmart South Shore. WaterSmart is a nonprofit partnership between the NSRWA and 12 towns on the South Shore: Cohasset, Duxbury, Hanover, Hingham, Hull, Kingston, Marshfield, Norwell, Pembroke, Rockland, Scituate and Weymouth. Our programs are based on the belief that education is key. Since its creation, WaterSmart has educated thousands of local school-age children, adults, and businesses on water conservation, stormwater pollution, where their water comes from, and how to care for it.

To learn more about the Water All Around You program for your school or group, contact WaterSmart Program Manager Lori Wolfe, at lori@nsrwa.org or (781) 659-8168.