Youth Water Education

Why is Youth Water Education Important?

Water is an essential resource. While most everyone knows that we need water to survive, we often overlook the other vital roles water plays in our lives. It's not hard to think of all the direct water uses we encounter daily, like drinking, bathing, cooking, cleaning, and watering our gardens. We use a lot more water indirectly every day. People use water to generate electricity, grow fruit and vegetable crops, raise livestock, manufacture nearly everything, including electronics and construction materials, and transportation of products around the world.

In many parts of the world, water supplies are scarce or becoming scarce. Droughts and increased water use are both contributing to these issues. Even in places with abundant water supplies, many waterways have become impaired by pollutants running off the land where large amounts of urban development and agriculture occur.

Youth play an important role in becoming informed citizens and future decision-makers. Engaging them in educational opportunities about water, science, and technology will help create a future generation of water stewards and innovators. A variety of award-winning resources for teaching youth about water are available from Penn State Extension.

Those resources include:

• Rain to Drain: Slow the Flow
  

  Rain to Drain: Slow the Flow is a hands-on stormwater education curriculum from Penn State Extension and Pennsylvania 4-H. This experiment-style series of activities leads youth and adults to understand better the movement of stormwater in natural and developed communities. It's also a great introduction to green infrastructure and stormwater best management practices. (Curriculum, Academic Standards, and Demonstration Adaptation are available)

• Watershed Decisions Activity
  

  A hands-on, inquiry-based activity that helps older youth and adults learn about water quality issues surrounding small watersheds and the decision-making processes that go into improving those water quality issues.

• Dive Deeper - Youth Water Educators Summit
  

  The Dive Deeper Summit is a gathering of youth water educators in the Mid-Atlantic Region where the organizers pair knowledge and resource sharing with outstanding networking opportunities.

• The Water We Drink: Drinking Water Fact Sheet for Youth
  

  Help youth to understand better why drinking water is essential to them, where it comes from, and how we make sure it's safe to drink with this engaging fact sheet. Written for youth in grades 6-12, the fact sheet covers essential points about public and private water systems and includes an activity on how to read a water quality test report.

• The Future Master Watershed Stewards Program
  

  Coming Soon!

• 4-H Water Projects

  A series of water-based project books, written in Pennsylvania, are available through 4-H, Penn State Extension's Youth Development Program. The books include hands-on and thought-provoking activities related to water conservation, water science, water quality, riparian buffers, and more. Helper's Guides and introductory video presentations are also available. Contact your county 4-H educator for more information.