Here's a glimpse of what teachers are saying about Water Rocks!...
The program gave the kids a very visual concept of erosion and conservation. An excellent program for our kids. Thank you!
- Roland-Story 2nd grade teacher
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The students were very attentive and actively involved in the demonstrations. They continued to talk about the things they learned after the team left. This is something we will review and re-visit in both science and social studies.
- Fellows Elementary, Ames, 4th grade teacher
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- Palo Alto Co. 5th grade teacher
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Thank you so much (again) for making the trip to Decorah yesterday. The lesson was great and fit perfectly into what we are doing in my classes and with our field trip. ... The kids enjoyed the activity AND learned AND applied concepts AND talked about it outside of class (always a good sign). I hope we can involve you again in either a field trip or a class presentation. -Meg Storkamp, Decorah Middle School, 7th grade science
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Thank you for the learning opportunities you and your team provided the AHS Earth & Space Science students! The other ESS teachers and I were very impressed with both the content and the staff during the day-long event. What impressed us the most is your team’s knowledge and enthusiasm about the content. With each group rotation, your staff greeted each group of ninth graders as if it was the first group they were working with. They made it exciting and interesting each and every time! The ninth graders are not always an “easy” group to work with. Your team did a fantastic job working with the teenagers and keeping their interest level high! Last year the Conservation Station was really well done and matched our classroom content. This year, wow! The additions you made really ramped up the participation and content connections! The hands-on aspects of the watershed mapping activity really increased the value of the trailer activity. The addition of the water testing and of the crop residue percentage activities really made the event meaningful for the students. It’s one thing to stand and listen to the content relationships, and quite another to actually think through and work through the content with the activities. I really appreciate these additions! You caused my students to be active and not passive learners! I also wanted to let you know that the additions you and your team have made to the Conservation Station more closely tie-in to our Course Level Expectations for AHS. - DeAnna Tibben, Ames High School Earth & Space Science
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As the Ag Ed Instructor and FFA Advisor, I coordinated this activity with our elementary teachers. The feedback I got from them was very positive. I believe that they signed up to visit the CS so they could get a little field trip in. What they got was some outstanding natural resource education for the students. What impressed me the most about your crew, was how they could be so effective with every age group that they presented to! From 1st graders up to the high school kids – they knew how to teach each group! WOW! I was very impressed with the ability of the teachers and the Station itself (including the rainfall simulator). Great job! - Juston Lamb, Pekin Community School District
And a few words of wisdom from the students:
Thanks for all the activities, they were fun!!! That was the best field trip ever!!!
- Edgewood-Colesburg 2nd grader
I just wanted to write you this letter to say thank you for teaching me/us about watersheds. I didn’t really know that much about them, but when you showed us the cupped hand thing, it gave me a better understanding. I really liked drawing the pictures on the boards and then putting them on the “map.” I also enjoyed the spraying water demonstration. It helped me better understand that we are losing soil faster than we can replace it. Anyways, I really had fun and thanks again!
-Knoxville 7th grader