In honor of Earth Month, Great Swamp Watershed Association brought environmental learning to life for classes at Summit’s Franklin School last week. The lesson took the form of a working model of a watershed.

A watershed is a geographical area in which all of the 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.

Presentations were made to all of the third grade classes by volunteers Stephanie Zecca of Chatham and Cordelia Gelly of Harding, AmeriCorps Ambassador Michelle Burke and Jan Malay of the Great Swamp Watershed Association. Using a three-dimensional tabletop watershed model that vividly illustrates how human actions affect local water quality, the children were able to see the difference between point source and non-point source pollution. Students help "pollute" the model with cocoa, lemonade and fruit punch (dirt, fertilizer and pesticides, respectively), and then using spray bottles to make it "rain." They’re able to see how pollutants run off the land and into rivers and lakes.

Jan Malay, Land Steward and Project Manager for Great Swamp Watershed Association said, "Taking the watershed model to different schools is a wonderful experience for us and the students. It is an interactive approach to learning about water and the children love it. Since water is something we tend to take for granted, having the students create a rainstorm and follow the effects of pollution through the watershed is a real eye-opener for them and they seem to enjoy the lesson."

Great Swamp Watershed Association was created in 1981 to protect the Great Swamp watershed basin. Celebrating its 20^th Anniversary as a non-profit organization, the Watershed Association relies solely on membership and contributions to protect the continued health of our watershed’s area. If you’re not already a member, become one today. For more information, call (973) 966-1900, or visit their website at www.greatswamp.org.

Photo caption: Third grade students from Judy Babinski’s class at Franklin School ‘testing the water’ 
with volunteer Cordelia Gelly of Harding.

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