There are many individuals and organizations in the Upper White River Basin working to keep our waters clean through projects and education. From time to time, Ozark Waters will feature an article from one of these "water warriors". Thanks Tammy!

David Casaletto, Executive Director

Stream Side Education: Great for All Ages

Tammy Yelden

Education Outreach Director, Table Rock Lake Water Quality, Inc.

Students are bombarded by so many topics during the school year that teachers only have a brief opportunity to speak about water quality.  With the opportunity to have guest speakers come in, students are not only educated on a different topic but they have a chance to see a different career path.  I have developed educational water quality presentations that are taken into the classroom and even allow mini-field days for the students to experience water education.  One of the most popular presentations is the Stream Biomonitoring.  For this hands-on laboratory, I bring in live aquatic macroinvertebrates and simulate a pollution problem that the students have to solve.  Students experience real stream life through a group learning environment.  Working together in teams students identify the aquatic macroinvertebrates with a picture key and calculate their water quality rating.  After all of the excitement of identifying the macroinvertebrates, we come back together to discuss where the pollution is coming from.  Students learn about point source and non-point source pollution sources.  I always allow for plenty of questions and the students have so many! 

I have also had the opportunity to complete the Project WET workshop which has enabled me to bring a broader variety of water education activities to any classroom or group.  Please check out my webpage on Table Rock Lake Water Quality to see my full brochure.  Remember that water education is very important these days.  Potable water is really quite scarce around the world and we need to keep our waters clean! 

Webpage: http://www.trlwq.org/index_files/WaterEducation.htm 

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