APW News!
Briefs . . .
Read the latest from APW in our Winter '08/'09 Newsletter
National Project WET Conference - APW staff from Phoenix, Tucson, and the Verde Valley returned mid June from Florida where they attended the 2009 Project WET Conference. This year, conference attendees continued the work of last year's conference, that being the revision of what we fondly call, "the white book." The 4th revision of the Project WET Curriculum and Activity Guide is due out at the end of 2010 with many new teacher-tested activities and some improved and re-tested activities. In addition to writing workshops, Arizona representatives attended breakout sessions, the favorite of which was a look at integrating technology into the use of Project WET lessons in the classroom and into teacher workshops. We keep a close eye on this work in other states as infusing technology is one of our top strategic goals in Arizona water education.
School Water Audit Project - The SWAP is under going a conversion from a local (Phoenix and Tucson) curriculum-support effort to an Arizona-wide program. A modularized instructors' guide is under development to lead teachers and students from an inventory of school water use through student-directed audits of the most probable and significant locations on the school grounds where water can be wasted or used more efficiently. The outcomes of a School Water Audit Project are a clear and accurate characterization of where and how the school uses water, recommendations for using water more efficiently, and implementation of the recommendations. Community members will volunteer to help students with the SWAP. In the end, we expect to see real water savings because of the good investigative work that the students do.
Know99 - Know99 Television is the youth and education cable channel operated by the City of Phoenix. They want to help you "Grow What You Know." Know99 featured APW on two different recent occasions. First, in September at the World Water Monitoring Day at the Rio Salado Restoration Project in Phoenix, Pam Justice, Mary Ann Stoll, and a few of our awesome facilitators taught 75 high school students about macro-invertebrates and watersheds. See what Know99 had to say about that in "World Water Monitoring Day". The second feature highlighted the Water Sustainability Office's School Water Audit Project. This project, based on the Arizona Conserve Water curriculum's activity by the same name, empowers students to positively impact water conservation at their school through hands-on, student-designed investigation. Thank you, Know99 for passing the word in "Remember Water".
