What’s a Watershed? Brookside Elementary Experiences Hands-on Learning With Watershed in a Box!
On May 7 and 8, CRWA staff and interns introduced watershed principles to 180 second graders across 10 classrooms at Milford’s Brookside Elementary School. In partnership with the Town of Milford, the classroom visits took place as part of a state-funded project aimed at strengthening community resilience through education and engagement of Town residents by opening dialogue on the causes of and potential solutions to environmental risks. Students learned about nature-based solutions as a tool for mitigating flooding and pollution in waterways and even had the chance to “create” flooding using the Watershed in a Box model. Staff used sponges, sprinkles, Jell-O, and food dye to help visualize common sources of pollution and the different ways they could enter rivers, oceans, and other bodies of water. Teachers mentioned the importance of the watershed model for their classrooms, highlighting accessibility, engagement, and the connections to classroom topics of the water cycle and geological landforms. Thank you to Brookside Elementary for allowing us to share why and how CRWA works to protect communities in our watershed!
