‘MODEL WATERSHED’ OFFERED TO TEACHERS IN LOCAL AREA

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 the Great Swamp Watershed Association.

A watershed is a geographical area all of whose streams flow into a single body of water. In Great Swamp, five streams converge into the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge and exit through Millington Gorge as the Passaic River.

The classroom presentations, offered by Watershed Association staffers and volunteers, focus on 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.

The model depicts land use in a typical watershed, demonstrating how businesses, farms, forests and residences 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.

Since acquiring the model three years ago, the Watershed Association has made about two dozen presentations in area schools, mostly to students in grades 3 to 8. Teachers interested in arranging a classroom presentation should call Jan Malay at the Watershed Association at 973.966.1900.

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

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