Academic enrichment programs are educational programs that compliment and enhance students’ classroom curriculum. These programs meet Pennsylvania content standards while they encourage youth to develop and maintain an awareness, competence and enthusiasm to understand important environmental concerns impacting our local watershed.
Designed to provide a link between curriculum and the real world, WVWA academic enrichment programs emphasize a “watershed approach” to appreciating, achieving and sustaining environmental improvements in a hands-on fashion intended to interest and excite students.
Today, many schools have limited training and resources to fully develop and explore local water-related issues. The WVWA education program is designed to fill this void by providing students, and their teachers, with a critical understanding of local water issues and related environmental concerns.
The WVWA education program provides children with a basic knowledge of the water cycle, watershed management, water chemistry, aquatic life, pollution biology and environmental science that should be part of every student’s experience so that they become informed voters, community leaders and policy makers.
These programs are developed in conjunction with local school districts and local private schools that are within the upper Wissahickon watershed; they are not generalized programs available to all schools. Please contact Suzanne for more information.
Watersheds and Wetlands Program
Students explore the concept of a “watershed” and the importance of land use in managing water quality. Youth are encouraged to discover the magic and wonder of our local wetland areas by visiting WVWA wetland preserves and exploring the significance of these environmentally sensitive areas.
The Evans-Mumbower Mill Program
Local students have a unique opportunity to experience firsthand the functional operation of the historic Evans-Mumbower Mill as they explore both the processes of the mill and the importance of the mill to communities along the Wissahickon Creek. The Evans-Mumbower Mill is a functional grist mill using traditional mill stones to grind corn into corn meal.
Water Quality and Stream Studies Field Experience
This program provides a hands-on opportunity for older students to study the chemical, physical and biological aspects of stream dynamics in a living laboratory – the Wissahickon Creek. Participants explore techniques and procedures involved in collecting and analyzing a variety of water quality variables.
Middle School students enhance their knowledge of water in environmental systems by learning how water gets underground, examining the connections bewteen groundwater and surface water, and discovering various ways pollutants enter groundwater.