Ten
Day Water Environment Curriculum
How the Program Works
There are three important aspects of the IWEA education program:
targeting the specific schools; supplying the guest speakers
and the reference materials; and coordinating the financial requirements
of the program. Our educational undertaking is designed to be
completely self-sufficient; not only do we support the technical
aspects of classroom teaching with training aids and guest lecturers,
we also assist in raising the necessary funds for each program.
The Ten Day Water Environment Curriculum is suitable for grades
6 through 9. With certain enhancements, this program can be used
at the Grade 5 and Grade 10 levels. The two lesson plan guides,
Booklet A and Booklet B, provide the teachers detailed technical
information, diagrams, definitions, reference materials, and
suggested assignments. The IWEA's primary target group is the
junior high schools in the State of Illinois. Our ultimate goal
is to integrate our curriculum into all of the more than six
hundred junior high schools in the State. Other levels and schools
will be addressed as the need arises and the program develops.
The basic support philosophy we are utilizing is a "grass
roots"
approach. We have divided the state into eighteen regions, each
of which is coordinated by a local IWEA representative. This
approach facilitates the distribution of materials plus provides
guest speakers who are locally well known. We are developing
regional libraries of classroom materials and a Speaker's Bureau;
thus we will be able to fulfill any school's request on a timely
basis.
Concurrently, the IWEA has established a fund-raising program,
designed to obtain support for targeted schools from local companies,
firms, and interested groups. The financial needs have also been
subdivided into several categories, so that in many situations,
it is envisioned that three or four organizations would support
each school.
Our final goal is to ultimately "teach the teachers" who
would carry on this program by themselves, especially as the
water environment curriculum is repeated year to year. At that
stage, the IWEA would provide fewer guest speakers, but would
continue to coordinate the plant tours, the distribution of classroom
materials, and the financial aspects of the program.
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