1. Major Rivers A Water Education Program for Texas

2. Overview Major Rivers is a water education curriculum designed to teach 4 th -5 th grade students about Texas’ major water resources, how water is treated and delivered to their homes and schools, how to care for their water resources, and how to use them wisely.

3. Why do we need Major Rivers? Students should be aware of the importance of water and how Texas manages water resources Existing water supplies are decreasing and water demand is increasing

4. Background LCRA originally launched Major Rivers in 1989 LCRA released an updated local version in 2002 TWDB and LCRA worked together to produce a new statewide version in spring 2003 TWDB distributed the first printing of the new statewide version in Aug 2003

5. Materials provided Teacher’s guide that covers 8 lessons –5 full color overhead transparencies Introductory video 30 full color student workbook (20 pages) 30 home information leaflets Attractive box to keep materials together

6. Teaching tools Correlation with TEKS –many objectives covered in science, math, language arts, and social studies Pretest/posttest sheets Activity sheets, maps & review exercises to complement lessons Hands-on activities in every lesson Internet resources Optional Extension and Enrichment Activities

7. Lessons Lesson 1: Water in Texas Lesson 2: The Water Cycle Lesson 3: Texas Water Supply and Water Planning Lesson 4: Watersheds and River Basins Lesson 5: How Our Water Use Affects Our World Lesson 6: Water Treatment and Distribution Lesson 7: Using Water Efficiently Lesson 8: Review and Posttest

8. Lesson 3: Aquifer Model Exercise

9. Lesson 3: Water Coursing through History

10. Lesson 5: Nonpoint vs. point source pollution

11. Lesson 6: Water Treatment

12. Awards Major Rivers won a "Gold Quill" award from the International Association of Business Communicators for the design and illustration work for the program. Major Rivers also won a related reward, a "Bronze Quill" award, in local competition sponsored by the IABC/Austin chapter.

13. Awards Major Rivers won two awards in 2003 from the Texas Section of the American Water Works Association (TAWWA): 1. a Watermark Award for education 2. a Conservation and Reuse Award for conservation

14. Feedback Statewide program just launched in August Evaluations very positive so far One classroom showed an average score increase from 46 on the pretest to 85 on the posttest Comment from teacher that completed the program: –"They looked forward to class everyday…. I think they were disappointed when we finished the program."

15. Continuing Education Credits LCRA provides Major Rivers workshops that give teachers continuing education credits (18 hrs total) –State Board for Educators Certification (SBEC) –Texas Environmental Education Advisory Committee (TEEAC) –Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented (TAGT)

16. Enjoy teaching Major Rivers! Be Water Smart… for today and tomorrow