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Schoolyard Water Education

Customized Programs for K-12 Students

WMG's environmental stewardship curriculum focuses on water conservation and wildlife habitat through water harvesting and native gardening activities. Our program has a strong emphasis on hands-on, applied education; therefore, many of our activities are designed to take place outside on the school campus. WMG staff work with teachers to create a customized program to meet the students needs and improve school campuses. Through workshops, students and adult volunteers can install passive water harvesting earthworks, cisterns, edible gardens, and native gardens on campus.

WMG offers in-class activities as well as weekend workshops. If desired, workshops can be arranged with adult volunteers, like students' parents. We work with educational institutions throughout the Tucson to Phoenix, Arizona regions.

2011-2012 Projects - Update

Holladay Magnet School, Tucson, AZ

  • An 800-gallon plastic cistern was installed with parent and staff volunteers, and will support existing vegetable and native pollinator gardens.
  • 4th grade students learned about watershed science and water harvesting through two hands-on sessions with WMG staff.
  Photo by Bob Bingham.

Agua Caliente Elementary School (ACES), Tucson, AZ

  • In February 2012, parents and teachers participated in a volunteer workshop that re-directed parking lot runoff to infiltrate in a landscape area, rather than running off-site.  This stormwater will support existing and new native trees, as well as new native plants, such as ocotillo and jojoba, chosen specifically as examples of desert adaptations, which ACES 2nd graders study in detail.  2nd and 4th grade students planted nearly two dozen native plants to complete the workshop.  
  • An 800-gallon plastic cistern was installed with parent and staff volunteers will support planned succulent, pollinator, and vegetable gardens.
  • 2nd and 4th grade students learned about the water cycle, watersheds, water harvesting, and native plants and animals through three hands-on sessions with WMG staff.

 

 

Rincon/University High School (RUHS), Tucson, AZ

  • During the spring 2011 semester, AP Environmental Science students completed a conceptual plan for a sustainable landscape design for the RUHS campus with guidance from WMG staff.
  • In March 2012, nearly 50 students, parents, and RUHS faculty and staff participated in a workshop in which the first phase of the school's sustainable landscape design was implemented.  The project included the installation of water-harvesting earthworks, along with native trees, shrubs and grasses, with the goal of reducing flooding and creating native habitat on campus.


 
RUHS students, staff, and parents implement water-harvesting features on campus. (March 2012)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Montessori Academy, Paradise Valley, AZ

  • Volunteers implemented a native pollinator garden with water-harvesting earthworks in May of 2012.  The earthworks will capture overflow from a plastic cistern, and the garden will be used by middle school students in their studies of native plants and desert ecology.

 

Start A Schoolyard Program

Partner with WMG to Start a Program at Your School

Please Note: WMG Schoolyard Program grant funds* may become available as early as August 2013 for the 2013-2014 school year.  If you would like to be notified about this grant funding opportunity when it arises, contact Tory Syracuse (email below).

Your school may start a program through a fee for service structure or a grant program.  Please contact Tory Syracuse, Associate Director, for more information and to get started. View or pass along our Schoolyard Program information sheet.

Consulting Services (Fee-based): WMG provides discounted consultation services to K-12 schools to assist in planning and implementing integrative and affordable schoolyard landscape solutions. We specialize in coordinating the design and implementation process with curriculum objectives.  

Schoolyard Programs (Fee-based): WMG provides comprehensive educational packages at a discounted rate to K-12 schools. We believe in the importance of engaging students through hands-on implementation of outdoor learning laboratories located at the school. If you are ready to start a program you may contact WMG to set up a site visit and discuss project opportunities and costs.  WMG will provide you with an estimate to run a semester long project or workshop series with your school. 

*Native Habitat through Rain Gardens (Grant funded): WMG periodically receives grant funds from the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife to cover the implementation costs for creating water harvesting gardens to support native habitat.  Schools who receive grants will be asked to provide matching funds. Based on available funding WMG has one or two grant rounds per year, and selects two to four schools to work with. 

 



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