Water resources education program offered to Solano’s K-12 schools

and their classrooms with an interactive livelesson about local water resources, said Marianne Butler, environmental education director for the Solano Resource Conservation District in Dixon.

In a press release, she said the lesson is “custom-tailored to the needs of each classroom, and include fun visuals, engaging educators and lively pacing to pull students into the science of our county’s water systems.”

Basically, it highlights the role each student has in helping to conserve and maintain a healthy water supply, she added in the prepared statement.

Some area teachers who have participated in the program give it good reviews.

“I definitely think the kids were motivated by the thought of their actions affecting the environment (and) … getting involved in a career in science,” said Ayesha Faust, a fifth-grade teacher at Markham Elementary in Vacaville.

Stacia Symanski, a third-grade teacher at Cordelia Hills Elementary in Fairfield, added, “(SWEP lessons) supported the curriculum we’re working on …(helping students to) understand that water and pollutants go into the ground and waterways.”

SWEP provides a variety of live and virtual water education programming for students and teachers, including training workshops that provide teachers with “innovative water science education resources and support,” Butler said, adding that program offerings include a spring virtual, live-streamed field trip for younger students to the Dunnell Nature Center in Fairfield.

All SWEP activities are free to Solano County teachers and their classes, and lessons link to other county environmental programs like Earth Day, Coastal Cleanup Day and World Environment Day, explained Butler.

“There’s still time to take advantage of SWEP offerings this year,” she said.

For those interested, teachers can go to website, at solanorcd.org, or call Butler at 678-1655 to get started.

“We have an additional new opportunity for teachers,” she said, noting the RCD’s Solano Water Institute Teacher Training is open for registration on the website.

The training is a multiday, field trip-based institute offering “locally relevant information on our region’s complex water resources and highlights the preservation of Solano County open spaces,” said Butler, adding that a first session will be held in August.

Solano RCD is a nonregulatory special district to the state of California that works to protect, restore, and enhance Solano County watersheds through a variety of education, restoration and partnership initiatives.