VMNH concluded the Spring '12 semester with a watershed education program designed to raise awareness of the Earth's most valuable natural resource, water.  Each afterschool site received programming that explored how we negatively and positively affect our watershed and how those choices not only influences the organisms that live in the water but will eventually affect us in the immediate and long-term future.  Also, VMNH partnered with the Dan River Basin Association (DRBA) to show students examples of macroinvertebrates (organisms that lack an internal skeleton and are large enough to be seen with the naked eye) that are used to determine the health of water. The semester culminated with students designing a storm drain stencil to convey the importance of water pollution prevention.





Students design their ideal community and discover that we all contribute to water pollution in some way and discover best management practices to reduce pollution.





Students explore the rate at which water absorbs and flows on different surfaces to investigate runoff.  Students tested three different surfaces:  pavement, mulch, and gravel.





 

Wayne Kirkpatrick, a DRBA volunteer, shows examples and explains the importance of macroinvertebrates.



Student designing a stencil slogan.