The Urban Watershed: my favorite people in some favorite places

The final day of our workshop took place in the "Urban Watershed" of Coeur d'alene and Lake CDA.  From paddling, to storm water drain stenciling, to ROV water quality testing opportunities, to learning about water-wise vetetable gardening and landscaping, today was PACKED with ways we can engage our students in learning about our watershed and the ecosystem services within it.  

Coeur d'Alene's economy relies heavily on the ecosystem services the lake provides for recreation, fishing, and real estate.  Today's adventures took us through some of the ways these have been managed in the past, present, and into the future to ensure Our Gem maintains healthy water quality as a supportive ecosyste service for all of the activities and lifestyles enjoyed by residents of Coeur d'Alene.

Community experts from CDA that joined us today were:

-Barb and Marty Mueller from GizmoCDA

-Janet Torline, Jessica Mannon, and Doug Fagerness from Kootenai Environmental Alliance

-Jacob Rothrock from North Idaho College Outdoor Pursuits

My favorite moment of the day came from Barb Mueller.  While explaining to our group about how GizmoCDA is recruting middle school science classes to build and launch ROV's for water quality in the lake, she explained how the highly successful engineering of these ROV's has unfolded so far.

"Failure is always the first step in learning."

Quite a few teachers in the group are now going to coordinate with Barb to get the ROV curriculum kits into their classrooms over the next school year!

Thanks to all of our participants, digital and 3D, for another awesome week of Adventure Learning in CDA!  I've learned so much from you all and am excited to see the ways you combine your talents in teaching with your new experiences this week to connect your students to their watershed!