Below are resources and lesson guides for grades k - 12 interested in educating their students about water, engineering, and the environment.
Virtual Resources for Teachers
- The USA Science and Engineering Festival offers a Virtual Interactive Speaker Series on a variety of topics.
- Engineering Tomorrow is hosting virtual, interactive workshops on a variety of STEM concepts for aspiring engineering students.
- The National Environmental Education Foundation has compiled a list of apps and activity guides for teaching environmental education
- Our counterparts at Prince William County Service Authority have created a sizable database of activities and experiments, H2Go Kids; activities are appropriate for grades kindergarten - 6.
K - 2
- Water Waste or Water Wise? A sorting activity for students in which they compare ways to conduct daily activities that either waste or conserve water. Print on 11x17 paper.
- Elementary Teacher and Student Resource List
- River Rangers Book Based Curriculum includes several activities and book recommendations relevant to the DC metropolitan area.
- Wendy, Where Does Our Wastewater Go? Reading and Experiment in conjunction with DC Public Library. (NEW!)
3 - 5
- Comic Strip —students will be able to complete the comic strip activity with what happened on a day when their character woke up to find that there was no water. Print on 11x 17 paper.
- Elementary Teacher and Student Resource List
- Watersheds Reading Worksheet
- River Rangers Book Based Curriculum includes several activities and book recommendations relevant to the DC metropolitan area.
- Who Polluted the Potomac? This PowerPoint was made to accompany this activity from Population Connection (NEW!)
6 - 8
- Watersheds Reading Worksheet
- The Game of Pipes is a mathematics activity where students wander through a maze of pipes as various water-related pieces. Each game space contains a water use practice that either wastes or conserves water, adding or subtracting from their initial 200 gallons of water. The winner is either the first student to reach Blue Plains or the student with the most gallons of water remaining at the end of the time allotted for play. Print on 11x17 paper.
- Action Sheet -- Use this sheet with the game board. 81/2 x 11.
- How Much do You Use?—Students will be able to make estimates about the amount of water they use for daily activities, then compare them to factual percentages.
- This list contains videos and other informational resources pertaining to water conservation and water facts.
- Archimedes Screw Provides a bit of history about Screw Pumps and Instructions on how students can create their own!
- Middle School Teacher Resource List
- Our YouTube video collection and information about our Tunnel Boring Machine and the DC Clean Rivers Project
9-12
- Virtual Microscope
- Our YouTube video collection and information about our Tunnel Boring Machine and the DC Clean Rivers Project
- High School Teacher and Student Resource List
HIGH SCHOOL INTERNSHIPS
Are not currently available directly with DC Water, but please see other opportunities below:
- Please see here for a searchable database of relevant local opportunities for yourself or your high school student.
- EarthEcho is accepting applications for its International Youth Leadership Council (ages 15 -22) and Water Challenge Ambassadors.
- Simply Hired also has searchable options suitable for high school students.
Engineering Tomorrow
DC Water is proud to partner with Engineering Tomorrow to host engineering workshops for students in grades 9 - 12 at Blue Plains. These workshops are aimed at increasing students' interest in Engineering careers after high school.
In response to Covid-19, Engineering Tomorrow has transitioned to an online learning platform. Conference breakouts that required the use of sophisticated, often large and expensive equipment, have been redesigned into standards-based online lesson plans that encourage students to use materials that can be found at home. All lesson plans have a corresponding “Instagram Challenge” component. The challenge allows students to engage in a competitive intellectual and creative exercise, while also giving them a way to connect with their peers during a time of physical separation
Classroom Posters
- Print these posters on 11x17" paper for best results
