The Mountain Valley Unified School District encompasses valleys nestled among mountains and bisected by wild rivers. The area depends heavily upon lumbering, tourism, mining, and sports fishery, all of which have an impact upon the region's natural resources. The young people of the region will inherit this natural wealth, and must be educated in the importance of making responsible, informed decisions in the use and management of their environment. I have been searching for a way to help the students in the District develop an awareness, appreciation and sense of stewardship toward our local watersheds and an understanding of how they affect our everyday lives in such things as economics, aesthetics, health and recreation. I developed the Adopt-A-Watershed program in response to this need.
In my position as coordinator of the science curriculum, I discovered the need for a unifying, central theme to tie the many diverse subjects of the curriculum together. The main concept of the Adopt-A-Watershed program is to use local watersheds as the focal point for our existing science curriculum for grades K-12. The program provides an applicable and local reference point for the materials covered in science.
Each grade is given a watershed to adopt throughout their years of school with the District. Each teacher helps the students study their watershed using subjects from that grade level's science curriculum. For example, if the first grade is required to cover habitats, that is an opportunity to study animals and their habitats in that class's watershed, or if the eighth grade is supposed to study sampling and mapping techniques, they do this in their adopted watershed. The program gives students a chance to observe up to 13 years of change in one watershed and develop their ability to recognize the affects of this change on our lives. Students also complete projects to help restore their watersheds and become involved with local planning agencies in order to help determine management decisions concerning their adopted watersheds.
Kim Stokely, Teacher
Hayfork Elementary School
P.O. Box 70
Hayfork, CA 96041