The annual Forests to Faucets workshop will be held in Pagosa Springs this summer on June 12-13. The two-day workshop offers an opportunity for teachers to wear the “student hat” and experience place-based education opportunities that they can share with their classes.
“This workshop is a great opportunity for teachers to get outside, have some fun networking with one another, while gaining a deeper understanding of watershed issues that they can then relay back to their students,” said Amanda Kuenzi, community science director at Mountain Studies Institute, who has organized the workshop for the past eight years.
The workshop will take place at the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD) office and will include field trips to explore the Upper San Juan River watershed with a focus on the ties between forest health and water quality. Teachers will also learn a series of classroom activities and lessons that they can use with their students.
“My students love the crumple map and the water cycle activities,” said Alison Robinson, a fifth-grade teacher at Lewis-Arriola Elementary that attended a past workshop. “The Forests to Faucets workshop was by far one of the best trainings I’ve attended so far as an educator.”
During the two-day workshop, teachers will travel in vans to the San Juan Overlook parking area on U.S. 160 to meet with a San Juan National Forest timber manager to learn about forest health management and how wildfires play a role in water quality. They will see demonstrations of water-based field trip activities that they can do with their students for place-based and project-based learning. The group will then follow the path of water from the San Juan River, through the water treatment plant, all the way through wastewater treatment, guided by staff from PAWSD.
Teachers are encouraged to use these opportunities to become familiar with national forest and PAWSD professionals so that they can later bring their classes on field trips, helping their students to become aware of how their water reaches them and how the natural water cycle ties into the municipal water cycle.
“We spent an entire class period doing the activity and discussing the questions I had created for the kids to do afterwards,” said Kristin Hentschel, a former sixth-grade teacher at Pagosa Springs Middle School who attended the 2017 workshop in Pagosa Springs.
Hentschel used “The Incredible Journey” water cycle activity to teach sixth-graders, and planned to use it every year, noting that the kids enjoyed the activity.
She also took her class on field trips with PAWSD and used additional activities from Forests to Faucets to support the content learned during the field trips.
There’s still time for educators to join this year’s workshop. All participants will receive a certificate for completing 16 hours of professional development with the option of enrolling for one continuing education credit through Adams State University.
They will also receive a free kit of materials to be able to do the activities covered in the workshop and a thumb drive of water-based curriculum for their use.
This workshop is offered annually on a three-year cycle, visiting the San Juan River, the Dolores River and the Animas River, respectively. The Forests to Faucets teacher workshop is hosted by the Water Information Program, Mountain Studies Institute and the San Juan Mountains Association.
Registration is available at https://www.mountainstudies.org/foreststofaucets. Registration closes May 28. A $50 deposit is required for registration, which will be refunded upon completion of the workshop.
Questions can be directed to amanda@mountainstudies.org.
