AL Water Watch Citizen Science Project Opportunity for Agriscience Teachers Field Day

4-H AWW Bacteria Project Flier

The 4-H Alabama Water Watch Program is currently recruiting educators to participate in the project Exploring Pathogen Pollution in Our Waters.

The project’s goal is to provide educators with the training, materials, and support needed to engage students in Alabama and surrounding states with meaningful watershed educational experiences that are focused on understanding, detecting, and mitigating pathogen pollution in local waters. Through the project, educators and students will become certified Alabama Water Watch Bacteriological Monitors who will collect and analyze bacteriological water data from their local watersheds. In addition, they will be supported as they implement an on-the-ground stewardship project related to pathogen pollution.  To complete the project, educators must be able to take students to a local waterbody at least four times a year to conduct monitoring. The project can provide limited financial support for field trip costs. The project will provide all monitoring materials required for testing. In addition, the project provides each school with a small budget with which they can implement a watershed stewardship activity to address issues they identify through their project (i.e. litter clean up, pet waste clean up station, etc.)

The project curriculum can be adapted for use with grades 4-12. It is correlated to the AL Course of Study for Science for grades 4-7, and high school Biology and Environmental Science. AWW is a State-Approved Stackable Credential for the Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources Cluster and correlates to several Career and Technical Education course standards.

Selected educators will complete Professional Development Training for which they can receive Professional Learning Units (PLUs) through PowerSchool and/or Continuing Education Units (CEUs) from the AU Office of Outreach. AWW is an affiliate of AMSTI. Teachers can also receive a stipend for their participation. I have attached a Project Flier that includes additional details about this opportunity and how to apply. You’ll also find project details in our recent AWWareness Blog Article.

Below is the Professional Development Training Schedule:

Intro to AWW and Bacteriological Monitoring Online Courses Open
May 9^th – June 5^th

Project Kick-Off Zoom
Wednesday, May 31st from 10am-12pm

In-Person Field Day at the Alabama 4-H Center in Columbiana, AL
June 6^th-7th

We will hold two Informational Zoom Sessions for interested participants. If you would like to join or receive a recording following the session, please register via one of the links below:

• Thursday, February 9th at 4pm: https://auburn.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEld-6sqTgqG9brzNE8r8rc4_gTvgvzRHDG
• Tuesday, February 28t at 4pm: https://auburn.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAldO-vrTwoHdA4Y_aeUaAYjGI2xd5G3qOo

Online applications will be accepted between February 1st and March 19^th. Please read more about project expectations, commitments, benefits and find the live application link here: https://www.aces.edu/go/4HAWWBacteriaProject