Get to know LGROW online while learning from home!
School may be out, but learning is still in session at LGROW!
While many of our community events and school programs have been cancelled or postponed due to the Coronavirus outbreak, LGROW staff are still hard at work protecting our watershed’s rivers, lakes, and streams. Since you won’t get to see us at public events for the next several weeks, we’re bringing our staff and programs to you LIVE on Facebook so that you can continue to get the information you need to take care of our waterways. We have a great lineup planned for you over the next few weeks, including:
Introductions to each of our staff and their areas of expertise via live programs and tours of some of our projects,
Demonstrations of hands-on activities and science experiments to boost your kids’ learning while they’re out of school. (Instructions to complete each experiment at home will be linked with each video), and
Art projects and live story-times to keep your kids entertained and get their creative juices flowing while sneaking in a little learning along the way.
Learning activities for kids will be broadcast live on our Facebook page by our Environmental Education Coordinator on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays starting on Monday, March 23 and through April 10th, or longer if school closures continue. Other LGROW programs will be highlighted live throughout the week, varying based on staff schedules. If there’s an activity you want to see us demonstrate, a book you want to hear us read aloud, or an LGROW program you want to hear more about, send us a message at info@lgrow.org or through Facebook or Instagram to let us know and we’ll do our best to make it happen. We’ve also put together a list of some of our favorite lessons and activities for teaching kids of all ages about watersheds and water quality. Check out our list of recommended educational activities below.
We hope you’re all staying safe and healthy, and we look forward to getting together with you at events and programs again soon. We’ll post updates regarding all of our events on our website and social media pages, so make sure you’ve followed us at LGROW.org on Facebook and lgrow_org on Instagram to stay up to date!
Fun Hands-on Watershed Learning Activities!
Introduce your kids to the basic concept of a watershed by building your own watershed model. This activity will be demonstrated LIVE on Facebook on Wednesday, March 25 at 1pm
Learn about how plants help stop erosion and improve water quality with this lab activity that uses just a few things you can find around the house. For those of you rocking the school schedule, you can even use this free lab worksheet from the Teachers Pay Teachers website to record your results. This activity will be demonstrated LIVE on Facebook on Wednesday, April 1 at 1pm
Discover how groundwater contamination can occur and how it affects our drinking water with this fun tutorial from the EPA.
Find out why pollution prevention is so important with this simple activity that demonstrates how difficult it is to clean water once it’s polluted.
This is a great sensory activity for younger kids and fun problem-solving activity for elementary students.If you’re really feeling ambitious, we love this mom’s homemade water treatment facility! She’s the homeschool mom of the year for doing this with a 3.5 year old – we think it’s a great activity for elementary or middle school age kids. Challenge your kids to build one that actually works!
If you’re looking for more detailed online activities or curriculum to use at home, here are some great curriculum and resources for teaching about watersheds.
The LGROW website has a ton of great resources you can explore to learn about local watersheds! Explore the Watersheds, Stormwater, Projects, and Other Resources tabs above for more information.
Dive deep into the Lower Grand River Watershed with the full units developed by our friends at Groundswell around the Lower Grand River Watershed Management Plan and the Grand River Rapids Restoration. These lessons were built to be used in local classrooms, but are full of activities you could pull out and do at home!
Assign your upper elementary or middle school student a lesson they can complete on their own through the National Environmental Education Foundation’s “Watershed Sleuth Challenge”. This interactive online lesson includes suggestions and tutorials for hands-on activities and guides kids through 3 levels of learning. At each level, you can earn a virtual badge that can be printed or shared on social media. If you share your badges, tag us so we can see what you’re learning!
Michigan Sea Grant is a great resource for everything you need to teach about the Great Lakes. You can find games, lessons, and activities galore for students of all ages on their website.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has great activities around coastal and climate issues as well, including both games and lesson plans.
Looking for something to assign your high school student? Water on the Web is designed to help high school and college students understand and solve real-world environmental problems using advanced technology. Resources include curriculum, data for lakes and rivers nationwide, data interpretation, and geographic information system tools as well as lots of additional materials.
Great high school resources are also available through Earth Labs, which includes many environmental science lab activities. While these are built for high schoolers, we’ve scaled some of their activities down to upper elementary or middle school level, so don’t be afraid to check it out if you have younger kids!
And while it might not seem watershed related to you at first, we know that agricultural practices play a huge role in protecting water quality in our watershed. If you want to get your kids learning about agriculture, pollinators, and more, check out these fun games by My American Farm that convey science, math, social studies, and ELA concepts for students in grades K-3 and 4-6, and the many lesson plans and activities available through the Michigan Agriculture in the Classroom program geared toward grades K-3, 4-6, and secondary level.
Finally, if you’re looking for a way to support amazing teachers around the country, check out the Teachers Pay Teachers website where you can download almost anything you’d ever need to teach your kids at home using awesome materials developed by teachers for teachers. There are many free downloads, as well as some paid resources, mostly at very low cost.