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At least that’s how Winona State University professors Ann Rethlefsen and Jeanne Franz see it.
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Morgan Whyte, left, and Mikala Nelton fish for macro-invertebrates during a session of Project WET, a program led by two Winona State University professors that teaches kindergarten through grade twelve instructors how to incorporate water education into the classroom. The project is based off of an international program and is a collaboration between WSU, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. |
The two have led WSU’s version of Project WET, an international program that instructs teachers how to incorporate water education into the classroom, since its adoption in 2006.
WET stands for Water Education for Teachers.
Too few kids spend time outdoors, even in an environmentally rich region such as Winona, Franz, a chemistry professor, said.
“A lot of kids go to school and then are inside playing computer or video games,” she said. “They aren’t comfortable with being outside.”
The project encourages teachers to venture out of the classroom and introduce students to nature.
Winona’s version of the program is a collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Teachers who range from kindergarten through 12th grade are given curriculum to take back to the classroom. Most of the program takes place aboard WSU’s boat the River Explorer. Lessons also take place at the Upper Mississippi River Refuge.
More than 100 teachers have participated in the program.
It’s not just teachers that have gone on the river with Project WET. About 600 students from area schools have taken spent a day out on the Explorer. Students and teachers at Rollingstone Community School have participated in Project WET for the last two years.
Young students tend to remember things better with hands-on activities, Rollingstone teacher Pam Lica said.
“There’s a big push to try to get kids outside as much as we can,” Lica said.
Rethlefsen and Franz will talk about the program at 7 p.m. today in Stark Auditorium on WSU’s campus.
