A grant has been awarded to the University of Louisville to convene a wide-ranging group of professionals to participate in a statewide project aimed at educating the public about water quality and quantity issues. The project will last for five years and will be the most comprehensive effort to date for Kentucky, and probably the nation.
Commonwealth Cooperative Water Education Project
A survey conducted for the Kentucky Environmental Education Council shows that the citizens of Kentucky are concerned about water quality; however, most are not aware of the major causes of water pollution or how citizens can influence water quality or quantity.
This statewide project employs the talents, resources and experience of 20 partners (government agencies, universities and groups) across the state. It aims to improve the awareness of all our citizens about water quality and quantity issues, as well as their ability and willingness to get involved in efforts to improve the quality of our streams and rivers.
This project will create a set of educational products that will be adapted for use with a wide variety of audiences ranging from school children to elected officials. These products will include a documentary, public service announcements, units of study, an electronic field trip to a watershed and workshops and presentations tailored to the educational needs of specific audiences.
In addition, the project will seek to improve the ability of teachers across the state to teach about nonpoint source pollution. (Nonpoint sources are water flows that do not come from a pipe, ditch or other man-made conveyance, which are discharges that can currently be permitted.) This will be accomplished by providing teachers with long-term and rigorous professional development, which will contain a field research component and will have significant followup, including contact with a community support system such as local extension agents. The wide-ranging resources of the partners will be used to create educational products that are instructionally sound, have accurate content and are Kentucky specific. Further, staff from all partner organizations will essentially be part of one statewide delivery system.
This education project is a five-year, multifaceted, statewide project to provide nonpoint source education to a set of adult Kentuckians, including teachers, local elected officials and others. The goal is to motivate them to address nonpoint source issues in their communities. The strength of this project grows from the willingness of all partners to collaborate on common goals, assisting each other with expertise, information and shared networks as needs arise.
Work Plan
During the first year, efforts will be concentrated on locating existing resources and developing new ones. This will include the creation of several media products by KET, including a documentary, an electronic field trip to a watershed and teacher professional development resources. KET already has a great deal of footage that will be searched to create these products. In addition, the WKU Center for Water Resource Studies will create a media campaign with a uniform message that can be used statewide to raise awareness of nonpoint source issues. The center will also create a series of public service announcements that can be tailored to fit the specific nonpoint source issues in various parts of the state. The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife plans a living streams exhibit at their education center and will develop units of study that teachers can use to support that exhibit.
In addition, a standards-based, rigorous and long-term teacher professional development program for high school teachers will be implemented in every two or three river basins. Environmental education partners at regional universities (and at the East Kentucky Science Center) will implement these programs in their adjacent basins and will serve as project basin coordinators for the entire project during the year it is focused on their area. These partners include the environmental education centers at Murray State University, Western Kentucky University, University of Louisville, University of Kentucky, Northern Kentucky University and the East Kentucky Science Center.
The Division of Water's Watershed Management Branch will work with the project director to both adapt existing workshops and materials and develop new ones to meet the specific needs of local elected officials who are now required to get continuing education credits. (Their time will not be used as match.) Part of this process will involve identifying areas where we already have nonpoint source educators and training people in those areas where we do not. These workshops (and other products) will also be used with adult audiences such as civic or church groups. Throughout the project, technical assistance partners such as the Kentucky Geographic Alliance and the UK Water Resources Institute will help insure that educational products contain accurate information, concepts and terminology.
Using the various educational products that have been identified or created, the project will be implemented at the river basin level. Implementation will begin in each basin with a media campaign. All partners, including several partners not mentioned above, will combine resources into one delivery system that will work to insure very widespread and effective education.
A reporting form will be developed and used by all project partners to help the project director keep track of matching costs as well as the actual activities of the project. Although evaluation, and feedback from that evaluation, will continue throughout the project, the last six months will focus on pulling together all evaluation information into a format that can be used by other states planning large-scale education programs.
