Sharing Day Features Successful Projects

Kurt Durham and Mitch MaloneJ.D. Durham, behavioral specialist at Moore-Mickens Education Center, shows Mary Margaret Hull, lead communications coordinator, and Mary Alice Makoid, communications coordinator, the hydroponics garden her students built with funding from a mini-grant.

District youth education staff recently visited more than 30 schools to observe student water resources projects developed with Splash! mini-grant funds.

The District’s youth education sharing days are held each year to give Splash! mini-grant recipients an opportunity to demonstrate their projects to District youth education staff.

Splash! mini-grant projects offer students the opportunity to learn more about water resources through experiential learning projects.

“It was exciting to see the innovative ways teachers brought science, social studies and math into the classroom to teach about water resources,” said Mary Margaret Hull, lead communications coordinator for the District Youth Education section. “Some of the students had never been on a field trip to a natural area, put their feet in the Gulf of Mexico or visited a local aquarium.”

Projects developed with Splash! mini-grant funds range from students creating water-conserving or Florida-friendly gardens on school campuses to performing water quality tests on local water bodies. Students also take at-home water use surveys and chart their results, create school-based water conservation campaigns and take field trips to nature centers or aquariums to learn more about the water resources.

This is the eleventh year that Splash! mini-grants have been offered to public, private and homeschool teachers in grades pre-kindergarten through 12 within the District’s 16-county area. The grant program offers up to $5,000 per school. This school year there were 137 projects funded throughout the District, totaling approximately $322,000 and involving 94,000 students.

The District is accepting applications through September 12 for the 2008–2009 school year. Please visit WaterMatters.org/minigrants for more information or to apply for a Splash! mini-grant.