Education and Public Awareness
The Texas Water Development Board has a mission to provide leadership, planning, financial assistance, information, and education for the conservation and responsible development of water for Texas. Conservation is an inexpensive and environmentally friendly way to increase the amount of water available in the future. The resources available from the TWDB for education and public awareness have been developed to serve school-aged children, as well as adults."
Raising Your Water IQ
Raising Your Water IQ is an inquiry based approach to teaching middle school students about Texas water resources and how to conserve water resources for today and the future. Four messages are central to this study:
- Where Does Our Water Come From?
- Who Uses Water and How Do We Use It?
- Why and How Do We Conserve Water?
- How Can We Plan Our Water Future?
Activities and lesson plans in this curriculum offer structured opportunities to practice the concepts in a classroom. Watersheds and surface water systems are related to groundwater systems. Point and non-point source pollution is explored in hands-on and minds-on activities. Students gather and graph data for their own water usage at home and go further to investigate water use in Texas. A “Water in Texas” web quest and accompanying web resources encourage students to ask questions and gain understanding about their own local environment.
Water Conservation Literature:
Click on the link above to view electronic
copies of brochures about indoor and outdoor water conservation
at home, and agricultural water conservation. These brochures
are available for free in limited quantities and for a nominal
price per additional copy. Email Patsy
Waters or call at (512) 463-7955 to order a sample packet
of Conservation Literature.
Water
IQ - Know Your Water:
The Water IQ
- Know your water brand is a result of research conducted
in 2004 as a result of the Water Conservation Implementation Task
Force recommendation that the state create and fund a State-wide
Public Awareness Program for Water Conservation. It stresses the
need of making individual Texans aware of the importance of water
conservation, including water reuse, to their future as residents
of the state.
The Task Force was able to secure financial assistance from public
and private sources in the amount of $150,000 to complete this
initial market research. This research, consisting of quantitative
statewide surveys and analysis of information gleaned from select
focus groups, will be of great value to those wanting to look
at the attitudes and awareness of Texans regarding water conservation,
water resources and water planning.
Click here
or on the link above to learn more about the Water IQ research
study.
Major
Rivers:
Click on the link above for more information about
the Major Rivers Water Education Curriculum for 4th and 5th graders
and how to order a teaching package, which includes a comprehensive
teacher's guide, CD-rom, and a classroom set of full color student
workbooks and home leaflets. Major
Rivers order form.
TWDB Kids:
TWDB has recently created
a page for kids. We have a new coloring
book, and some brand new games to teach kids about surface
water, groundwater, water conservation, water planning and more!
There is also a brand new 6th grade curriculum called Raising
Your Water IQ.
Water
Conservation Lesson Plans:
Click on the links below
for a summary of each lesson plan.
If you are interested in electronic copies
of these lesson plans, please click on the links below and fill
out the lesson plan request form at the bottom of the page (except
for the first link which is a pdf, so click on any other link
to find the request form). Once you fill out the form, you
will have access to the electronic files. If you have any
questions, email Linda
Ruiz McCall or call at (512) 463-5836.
Raising
Your Water IQ (4 page summary PDF)
Elementary
Lesson Plans (5)
Middle
School Lesson Plans (5)
High
School Lesson Plans (5)
- For more information, please contact:
Linda Ruiz McCall, TWDB
Telephone: (512) 463-5836
email:linda.mccall@twdb.state.tx.us
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