Beetle Busters  

RiverXchange is looking for fifth-grade teachers and their classes to join the program for the 2012-2013 school year. RiverXchange is an innovative program that combines a year-long water resources curriculum with class partnerships through social networking technology. New Mexico fifth-graders are partnered with "high-tech pen pals" in another part of the U.S. or world. Pen pals share what they are learning about critical water resources issues relating to their local river. Through the curriculum, students learn about watersheds, water use in society, as well as river ecosystems; then they decide for themselves what they can do to protect local water resources.

Visit RiverXchange for more information.  

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Resources 

City that Drinks the Mountain Sky  

Learn about the New York City water supply system as told though mask and puppet theater. Through a shimmering tapestry of poetry, puppetry, and music, City that Drinks the Mountain Sky brings alive the landscape of the Catskill Mountains - from the Ice Ages to today - to portray the ongoing partnership to protect this flowing treasure.

2 School Performances at:

BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center

199 Chambers Street, Manhattan

Friday, October 19

10:15 am - 11:15 am
and
Noon - 1:00 pm

Tickets are $5 for students and parent chaperones (free for teachers and school staff). Tickets are available at the box office (212) 346-8468 and online.

This dazzling show, suitable for students in grade 4 through college, will take you into the very heart of a watershed. See how forests act like kidneys, filtering water as it moves towards streams and reservoirs. Meet some of the engineers and laborers who built the reservoirs and aqueducts. And discover how this enormous water project brought profound changes to the Catskill Mountain communities and New York City.

The New York City water supply system is one of the engineering wonders of the world. From the Catskill Mountain watersheds, gravity helps to deliver over one billion gallons of drinking water to the faucets of nine million people who live, work and visit New York City and upstate communities in a journey that spans more than one hundred miles.

Brought to you by the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development, this workshop will focus on ways to help students become systems thinkers, learn the skills of scientific inquiry, and understand that science doesn't happen only in a laboratory or classroom. Outdoor experiences in natural settings increase students' problem-solving abilities and motivation to learn in social studies, science, language arts and math. This workshop also includes ways to incorporate the outdoors into city school curriculum. 

Location: Frost Valley YMCA Educational Center, Claryville, NY

Date and Time: Saturday, December 1 from 10 am to 4 pm

Transportation and Directions: A free charter bus will be available to transport teachers from NYC to Frost Valley. Reserve your seat on the bus when you register for the workshop. Driving directions HERE.  

Questions or To Register: Email or call Katie Palm, Director of Programs at the Catskill Center (845) 586-2611.

Second Catskill Environmental Research and Monitoring Conference (CERM) 
Register now for the second Catskill Environmental Research & Monitoring Conference at the Ashokan Center in Olivebridge, NY on October 25-26.
Information about the conference, conference agenda, registration and accommodations, can be found on the conference webpage. 

Stroud Water Research Center is Looking for Innovative Teachers 

Attention Middle and High-school Science Teachers: the Stroud Water Research Center has developed and tested an innovative curriculum enhancement with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF)  that makes earth science real, comprehensible, and useful for today's learners. Tested over the past 3 years, this online self-discovery tool is now ready to be tested by science teachers in the Schuylkill and Christina River Basins in Pennsylvania and Delaware and by teachers across the country.  
 
Teachers willing to try new things and challenge students to think on their own are encouraged to apply. Teachers enrolling in the test program will receive online support, and mentoring by experienced educators and access to curricular material developed thus far for the project.

The curriculum introduces students to the core concepts of soil science, geographic information systems (GIS), hydrology and integrates them within a real-world framework. Test participation is limited. Contact Susan Gill at the Stroud Center for more information.  

PS 144 Learns About the Watershed and Visit the Catskills 

PS 144, with the Queens Museum of Art, received a Bus Tour Grant from the Watershed Agricultural Council in January 2012. On June 22 the group took a two-day trip to Frost Valley YMCA Camp to learn about the NYC watershed.