a water aware program for primary schools in Sydney Region.

This Environmental Education program devised by Observatory Hill Environmental Education Centre is designed to raise awareness of water conservation and wastewater management in the everyday operations of a primary school. More sustainable resource management is a key objective of the Environmental Education Policy.

The program is designed so that the entire school is focussed on Watertight during a one day in-school visit by EEC staff. Due to organisational and staffing constraints, the program is suited to primary schools with no more than 12 classes. Curriculum based units with a practical application will form the basis of student investigation of water issues. Introduction to the program is delivered to the entire staff around one month prior to the workshop day. Teachers will be briefed on the units to be delivered as workshops on the day. Some units of work will utilise existing educational resources produced by Local Councils, Sydney Water, Gould League, EPA etc.

Making face masks	Local waterway health check	Water pollution risk reduction activity

Students will be engaged in a variety of activities, many of which are 'hands-on', and are linked to the elements of Quality Teaching. Examples include lessons that incorporate scientific investigation, collection and analysis of data, problem solving, report writing, communicating ideas, digital photography, scripting plays, creating artwork, designing and making murals and mobiles and devising a school water monitoring plan. The content and delivery of lessons focus on many of the priority areas for Sydney Region.

Program aims

• raise awareness within the school of environmental issues associated with water, and provide the framework to address water wastage and better manage disposal of wastewater in schools.
• involve as many teachers and students as possible in the Watertight workshops, through 'hands-on' activities that complement classroom learning.
• incorporate elements of Quality Teaching within the Watertight workshop lessons.
• work towards the Environmental Education Policy objectives of responsible management of school grounds and resources.
• provide a professional learning experience for staff.
• encourage support and participation from local community agencies to foster stronger partnerships with schools.
• promote schools to their local community as actively portraying a culture of sustainability, both in the education of their students and in the management of the school and its resources.

Program format (nb. The mode of delivery will depend on the size of the school and the involvement by outside agencies).

• Schools wishing to participate in the program will follow a delivery format which includes:
• principals approval of the whole school participation in the program.
• EEC staff meet with the Principal, key executive and stage co-ordinators to roll out and discuss workshop details and organisational procedures on the day. This is then followed soon after by a full staff meeting where EEC staff will explain curriculum content and the student activities that will take place in the different sessions on the day.
• the whole school takes part in Watertight workshops on one day.
• students follow up from Watertight activities by reporting and communicating to the whole school actions to achieve the aims of the program. A whole school assembly soon after the event is a great way of sharing the outcomes and planned actions of each workshop.
• the school works on a process that ensures the environmental initiatives are included in the school's Environmental Management Plan and are part of the ongoing cultural shift to sustainability within the school community.

Students conducting water quality testing in a local waterway	Conducting a water audit	Students investigating stormwater  issues using a simulated model
Students undertaking a drain audit	Spraying school drains with an environmental message	Students observing a school stormwater  simulation model

Examples of Watertight lessons

Lesson	Stage	Targetted KLA	Photos
Meno helps his friends ‘Meno helps his friends’ is a story which is relayed to the class about a boy who can talk to sea creatures. The story helps students to investigate humans impacts on waterways. Meno tries to find solutions to these problems. Through listening to the story students will identify ways to protect the waterways as Meno finds alternatives which are less harmful to the environment.	ES1/1	Literacy, Creative Arts
Taking Care of Our Place The focus is story telling, singing and hands on activities which lead into exploration of the school grounds through a school yard safari to identify ‘gold star’ areas of sustainability and locations that need more focus.	ES1/1	HSIE, Science and Tech
Follow-up on play (No1 Painting & Drawing)  Revisit the environmental messages of the play and discuss how the puppeteer conveyed them to the audience eg humour etc. Invite the class to recreate the story which is written scene by scene on the whiteboard.  Have the class members choose their favourite character. Discussions could follow as to why characters were chosen.	1/2	Creative Arts, Literacy
Follow-up on play (No 2 mask making) Revisit the environmental messages of the play and discuss how they are conveyed to the audience eg humour etc. Invite the class to recreate the story which is written scene by scene on the whiteboard.  Have the class members choose their favourite character. Discussions could follow as to why characters were chosen.	2/3	Creative Arts, Literacy
Hang Ups on Water The class will be revisit the environmental messages of Watertight and the play to design a door hanger to promote water awareness at home.	2/3	Creative Arts, Literacy
Rainy Monday ‘Rainy Monday’ is a video about a family moving into a new home and discovering all the ways they use water and the families impact on the sewerage and stormwater systems.	2/3	HSIE
EEC Stormwater Model The stormwater model will involve a demonstration/simulation covering water conservation and stormwater management at home and at school.	K-6	Science & Tech, HSIE
Water Wiseguys Hands on’ game based activities to focus on water wastage and stormwater pollution.	1-2	Maths Science and Tech
Water Audit The water audit  aims to identify the location and type of all water devices within the school  to determine the extent of water loss from dripping and/or leaking water devices. The survey will also record the existence of water saving devices and strategies.	3	Maths, Science & Tech
The Case of the Disappearing Water Students view the video ‘The case of the disappearing water’ (14 mins) which is a detective style story of ‘who dunnit” presented by a boy and girl in search of answers to a pollution problem. Activity sheets are to be completed and a creative writing task is also included.	2/3	HSIE
Get2Know H20 A water saving game to raise student awareness about day to day activities where water is used and either wasted or conserved. The game requires students to think about their behaviours and where they fit in their use of water at home and at school.	2	Science & Tech
Story of a River A catchment simulation, where students role play characters which represent pollutants that enter waterways through different activities taking place throughout the catchment. Activity sheets support the simulation. The story provides an excellent introduction to issues relating to water quality and river management.	2/3	HSIE, Science & Tech
Stormwater drain audit Students will be introduced to the concept of stormwater. The school drains will be mapped and investigated, both in the grounds and around the outside perimeter.  Some school drains will be stencilled with an environmental stormwater awareness message.	3	Maths, HSIE
Media Monitor The class will be divided into media teams to cover each of the activities in a session to do a media coverage of the lessons/concepts being covered in Watertight.	2/3	HSIE, Literacy, Creative Arts
Enough is Enough  The video focusses on everyday activities of family’s and the resultant impact of stormwater/wastewater disposal on the system. Alternative behaviours are suggested to reduce the level of waste entering waterways.	2/3	HSIE
Local Waterway Health Check Students will be re-introduced to the concepts of wastewater, stormwater and water quality. The different measurements to establish water quality will be discussed. The students will study a local waterway, take measurements, record results and draw conclusions about the health of the waterway.	3	Science & Tech, HSIE
Crisis in the Catchment Student teams identify environmental management issues within specific locations within the River City catchment. Each research team, will use their scientific evidence package to assess the need for environmental grant funding at their study site. The team will be provided with a Team Resource Kit to help them formulate their argument. At the end of the lesson, the councils environmental manager decides which team has the most convincing evidence to be allocated the grant funding.	3	Science & Tech, HSIE
Take 1,2,3 Students will use the performance to play build their own drama sequence working from a choice of three approaches. Students will create a new storyboard, write a simple script and perform their new drama sequence.	2	Creative Arts, Literacy and HSIE
Design a decoder - Waste water management Students design a stormwater decoder which focuses on wastewater management (stormwater and runoff) at home and at school.	3	Creative Arts, Literacy and HSIE
Design a decoder - Waste Conservation Students design a decoder which focuses on water conservation at home and at school.	3	Creative Arts, Literacy and HSIE
Every Drop Counts Challenge Students work in teams and are challenged to complete ‘hands on’ tasks relating to water awareness.	3	Science and Tech
Workout on water This activity engages student in a series of  experiments to investigate aspects of water, its quality, properties and global distribution.The activity works on student teams rotating through 3 activities i) Pollution Solution, ii) H20, what’s the go? and iii) Wonderful Water.	2-3	HSIE, Numeracy Science and Tech.
Water Monitoring Action Plan The class will use a design brief to devise a school system/plan to monitor and reduce water wastage in the school.	3	All KLAs

The Water Monitoring Action Plan is a lesson designed to get students in Year 5/6 actively involved in the management of their school's water use. The table below lists schools involved in the Watertight program so far. Click on an school's name underlined, to view some Year six's Water Management Plan. More plans will be added in the near future.

One of the important outcomes of the program is improved environmental management at the school level through raising awareness, problem solving and the implemention of sustainable management strategies that become entrenched in the school culture. Schools will be encouraged to apply for the Rainwater tanks in schools rebate program. Further information on this program can be found at www.sydneywater.com.au

In addition, classroom teachers will enhance learning outcomes in the Key Learning Areas that achieve many of the outcomes of the Environmental Education Policy.

The Watertight workshop day begins with a play show performance followed by three session across the day. These sessions are delivered by the class teacher or the class teacher is assisted by EEC staff and other outside agencies such as local council environmental officers or education officers from environmental agencies such as Sydney Water. The support by outside agencies and the team teaching approach with the school and our Centre has allowed us to keep the cost to around $8.00 per student.

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