Project WET (Water Education for Teachers) activities assist in teaching Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) and Sunshine State Standards.

Project WET was developed in 1984 by the North Dakota State Water Commission. It’s currently headquartered at Montana State University and is active nationwide and in several countries.

The St. Johns River Water Management District offers Project WET workshops in the following counties: Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Brevard, Clay, Duval, Flagler, Indian River, Lake, Marion, Nassau, Okeechobee, Orange, Osceola, Putnam, St. Johns, Seminole and Volusia.

The challenge for any educator is to solidify abstract concepts in a student’s mind. To do this, a teacher must engage all of the senses and speak within a frame of reference the student understands.

Florida Project WET engages students in inquiry-based activities that relate to the water resources students know: the bath, the ocean, the creek behind their house. It then educates while it entertains, carrying a message of water resource education and reinforcing classroom concepts being taught.

Project WET activities exist for every subject at every grade level and can be integrated into the existing curricula of a school, museum, university preservice class or community organization. Facilitated by the St. Johns District in northeast and east-central Florida, Project WET activities come with a list of the Sunshine State Standards they meet, as well as FCAT sample questions.

The District offers training and materials to educators for three Project WET educator and activity guides, developed and tested by Project WET educators across the country:

Project WET

The Project WET curriculum and activity guide, for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, is a collection of 96 innovative, water-related activities that are hands-on, easy to use and fun. Project WET activities incorporate a variety of formats, such as large- and small-group learning, whole-body activities, laboratory investigations, discussion of local and global topics, and involvement in community service projects.

Sample activity:
In the "H2Olympics," upper elementary or middle school students learn physical science and mathematics as they compete to investigate two properties of water — adhesion and cohesion. In the 50-minute activity, water is taught to pole vault, walk a tightrope, do the backstroke and slalom.

Healthy Water, Healthy People

Healthy Water, Healthy People is taught to middle and high school students and water resource professionals to explain the complex concept of water quality. The program aims to help people understand how water quality plays an intrinsic role in the health of individuals and their communities. It includes water quality testing instruction, course materials for adults and dozens of classroom activities that show how people and their water resources impact one another.

There Is No Point To This Pollution

In "There Is No Point To This Pollution," middle and high school students analyze data to solve a mystery, interpret a topographic map, and analyze and compare water quality data to learn about the cumulative impacts of nonpoint source pollution. It reinforces science, geography, mathematics, social studies and language arts concepts.

Conserve Water

Conserve Water is a collection of activities and case studies for teachers, grades 6 through 12. The program engages students in the issues and information that encompass the topic of water conservation. The 15 activities and 10 case studies were designed to be thought provoking and to challenge students to exercise decision making and higher level thinking skills.

Sample activity:
In "Alligators, Epiphytes and Water Managers," students identify plants, animals and water conservation behaviors by analyzing clues that describe water-related adaptations of aquatic and terrestrial organisms. Upper elementary and middle school students grasp language arts, geography and science concepts by answering riddles to guess different organisms' identities by their water conservation behaviors.

District coordinators conduct workshops year-round to demonstrate Project WET activities and materials for educators. These six-hour workshops are designed to meet Florida’s professional development protocols.

Because Project WET is a multidisciplinary program, the District can design workshops to meet the needs of specific schools and teachers by focusing on particular disciplines, such as language arts, reading, math and science. Workshops are hands-on and comprehensive, indoors and out. They culminate with attendees receiving activity and curriculum guides and other valuable resource materials.

To hold a workshop, the District requires at least 10 educators — they don’t have to be classroom teachers — to a maximum of 30. Workshop coordinators will work with interested parties to schedule dates and locations.

For more information on Project WET or to schedule a workshop, contact the District’s education staff at (386) 329-4563, e-mail Lori Dennard at ldennard@sjrwmd.com or write to

St. Johns River Water Management District
Office of Communications and Governmental Affairs
4049 Reid Street
P.O. Box 1429
Palatka, FL 32178-1429

Water resource education workshops/events

October 2008

• Oct. 24–25 — Audubon Assembly at the Plantation Inn in Crystal River. Join conservationists, Audubon of Florida staff, scientists and special guests to help set Audubon’s conservation priorities for 2009. For more information, go to http://www.audubonofflorida.org/conservation_assembly.html.
• Oct. 3–5 — Call of the WILD at the Ocala Outdoor Adventure Camp. For more information, contact Lori Haynes, Project WILD/K–12 education coordinator, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at lori.haynes@myfwc.com, or toll-free in Florida only at (877) 450-WILD. For more information, go to http://MyFWC.com/educator/K12.html.
• Oct. 4 — Project WET (Water Education for Teachers) at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens. For more information, or to register for this workshop, contact Kelliann Whitney at whitneyk@jacksonvillezoo.org.
• Oct. 12–18 — Earth Science Week celebrates “No Child Left Inside.” The American Geological Institute’s Earth Science Week 2008 will encourage young people to learn about the geosciences by getting away from the television, off the computer and out of doors. Learn more about how to get involved by visiting http://www.earthsciweek.org/.
• Oct. 23–25 — Florida Association of Science Teachers (FAST)Conference. For an array of field trips, workshops and concurrent sessions designed for science teachers, go to the FAST conference in Orlando. For more information, go to http://www.fastscience.org/conferences.php.

November 2008

• Nov. 4–7 — Everglades Gathering by the Florida Humanities Council. Learn about the area’s diverse ecosystem and its political and social history. For more information, go to http://www.flahum.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Tours.Everglades.

January 2009

• Jan. 23–25 — Leadership Training at the Everglades Youth Camp in West Palm Beach. Participants must have completed a Project WILD workshop to register for this leadership training. For more information and to register, contact Lori Haynes, Project WILD/K–12 education coordinator, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, at lori.haynes@myfwc.com, or toll-free in Florida only at (877) 450-WILD. For more information, go to http://MyFWC.com/educator/K12.html.

February 2009

• Feb. 7 — Project WET at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens. For more information, or to register for this workshop, contact Kelliann Whitney at whitneyk@jacksonvillezoo.org.

March 2009

• March 16–22 — 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul, Turkey. For more information, go to http://www.worldwaterforum5.org/.
• March 26–29 — League of Environmental Educators in Florida (LEEF) Conference at Wekiwa Springs State Park. As the date approaches, go to http://leef-florida.org/ for more information.

FCAT-like practice questions

• AfterMath — Questions and responses
• Aqua Bodies — Questions and responses
• Cold Cash in the Icebox — Questions and responses
• Incredible Journey — Questions and responses
• Macroinvertebrate Mayhem — Questions and responses
• Molecules in Motion — Questions and responses
• Poetic Precipitation — Questions and responses
• Sum of the Parts — Questions and responses
• Excel sample graphs for Color Me a Watershed activity
• Bibliography to Project WET activities