GREAT SWAMP WATERSHED ASSOCIATION

Fall 2000
Vol. 20 No. 4

'Watershed Model' Offered to Teachers

To bring environmental learning to life in area schools, teachers are invited to bring a working model of a watershed into the classroom, courtesy of GSWA.

The classroom presentations, offered by staffers and volunteers, include a three-dimensional tabletop watershed model - an interactive educational tool that vividly illustrates how human actions affect the water quality of lakes, rivers and streams.

Since acquiring the model in two years ago, GSWA has made about two dozen presentations in area schools, mostly to students in grades 3 to 8.   The model depicts land use in a typical watershed, demonstrating how industrial, commercial, agricultural, forest and residential land uses impact water quality.

Students participate in the demonstration by helping to "pollute" the model with cocoa, lemonade and fruit punch (dirt, fertilizer and pesticides, respectively), and then by making it "rain" to demonstrate how pollutants run off the land and into rivers and lakes.

Teachers interested in arranging a classroom presentation should call Jan Malay at  973.966.1900.

Funding to support this offering was provided by the Lucent Foundation, the Summit Area Public Foundation and the Schering-Plough Foundation.

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