1. Connecting Education to Restoration Projects
Darek Staab, Project Manager, Trout Unlimited Upper Deschutes Home Rivers Initiative in Oregon

2. Why take the time to educate?
Will it be worth the effort?
Perfect element in grant proposal to compliment restoration
Great method for connecting families and different generations outside
Method to meet goals for restoration partners
Create future stewards and decision-makers
Wouldn’t you want your kids doing this in school?

3. Know your audience and your project
What resources and time do you have for education
Match your project and goals with your audience
Chance to engage a new partner to share in the coordination
Educational theme from restoration should drive your audience and format
What are your goals, your timeline, your structure, and your resources

4. Restoration Project Goals:
Develop a greater understanding of the watershed
Volunteers develop an understanding of the project
Chance to do some service work to support the stream
Time to help plan the next project goals
Involved in monitoring for success

5. How to sustain our projects and our future. Through service …
How to sustain our projects and our future? Through service …. learning and restoring ….
Linking to teachers, mentors and students to do restoration projects and letting them guide our future

6. What is Service Learning?
Service-Learning: “A form of experiential learning where students apply academic knowledge and critical thinking skills to address genuine community needs.” Pamela and James Toole, 1994
Principles for Service Learning:
Provides hands-on learning which meets a community need
Connects an audience with mentoring community partners
Integrates service and studies into curriculum
Provides time for a learner to reflect on the service
Empowers each learner with leadership skills

7. Best Practices for Service Learning
Encourages student leadership and decision-making
Integrates and values the community voice
Fosters civic and environmental stewardship
Provides opportunities for cross-cultural connections
Plans for the long-term sustainability of the program

8. Audiences to Consider for Educational Links:
Upper Elementary Schools (4th, 5th and 6th)
Middle School and Early HS (7th, 8th, 9th)
Upper High School during year or summer internships (classes and clubs)
College students (classes or clubs) or Graduate Students
Youth Conservation Corps and Scouts
Teachers through workshops (one day, summer, or year long)
Regional clubs, service groups, or other organizations (from kids to adults)

9. Engaging different learning styles and skills
Visual (spatial) -- prefer using images and spatial understanding
Verbal (linguistic) -- prefer using words (speech and writing)
Physical (kinesthetic) -- prefer using body, hands and sense of touch
Logical (analytical) -- prefer using logic, reasoning and systems
Social (interpersonal) -- prefer to learn in groups or with people
Solitary (intrapersonal) -- prefer to work alone and use self-study

10. Connections between aquatic habitat and health of the riparian corridor

11. Ecosystem Restoration
Isn’t Restoration just making it look natural?
Restore the connections and processes that support the ecosystem….
Restoring riparian and upland forests, spawning habitat, nutrient cycling, and migration patterns up and down stream
A chance to learn about restoration while doing service
Ecological restoration doesn’t occur overnight, it takes years for the connections and processes to develop (i.e. monitoring)

12. Using inquiry to study a river ecosystem:
What do you find interesting about your local river?
What is a river ecosystem and how does it work?
How do scientists measure the baseline and restoration of a river ecosystem?
How are cultural groups connected to the river and how might their relationships change?
How do dams and diversions change the connections in the ecosystem?
What would you like to study within the ecosystem and history of this ecosystem?

13. Planning Service Learning Projects
Survey the site which needs restoration
Create a site map, baseline monitoring, site report with photographs and observations, species inventory, interview landowners, survey topography of site
Research/select site design and restoration techniques
Plan out site restoration needs, create calendar, share work opportunities, create drawings for restoration vision, seed collection and propagation, site logistics
Monitor restoration success and share results
Follow monitoring plan, photography throughout, create educational brochure, sign and site protection, educational tours

15. Restoration Project has begun but it still needs you to get involved

16. West Seattle High School: Urban students bringing home skills and interest
Introducing river studies as a springboard for student science projects back at home.
Coach student learning in how to do quality science, by asking testable questions and appropriate methods for their research.
Program culminated with independent student projects in their local watershed with reports and presentations provided for the community.

17. Reaching Local, Underserved Students with Custom Formats:
1. NSF Funded “Elwha Education Project: Increasing the Relevancy of the Geosciences for Native American Youth Through Participation in Environmental Restoration Projects on Tribal Lands”
Two Day Workshop for Tribal Elders, Educators and Staff
6-Day Field Program integrating Cultural History and Science
Evolved to become a year round program with school and summer elements
2. Watershed Education Program for under-resourced Schools (Middle and High Schools)
6-Day Program (4 days of classroom lessons and 2 days of field studies and service work)
Culminating in Community Forums, where students share their results and experiences

18. Natural Resource Education Program
Elementary Components similar to Trout in the Classroom. Involves a field trip to study watershed health and habitat
Middle School has a stream team where the students are creating comparison studies to better understand sites and conditions
High School is creating a monitoring education program through the adoption and study of the Crooked River
Summer field crew where the students take on paid project development responsibilities and follow them with their team to completion

19. Landowner Stewardship Program:
Series of Workshops created by and implemented with Landowners
Planning workshop to set up topics and timeline
Day programs with field visits and time for planning and questions
Outreach education materials to share opportunities, watershed news and tips
Designed for a housing association, a neighborhood or single large landowners
Linked with significant restoration projects on the properties to involve additional people and learning opportunities

20. Field Science Workshops and Seminars
Teacher Retreats and Workshops:
4-day workshop for summer – 2 days with multiple hosts
2-day workshop spring and fall – two days of field time Deschutes
Custom Seminars for universities and organizations:
“Environmental Issues in the Pacific Northwest”
“Dams, Dam Removal and the Ecology of Rivers”

21. If a child is too keep alive his inborn sense of wonder
If a child is too keep alive his inborn sense of wonder he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in Rachel Carson