Kids Get Down To Earth

Ecology lesson by retired CSUC Professor Paul Maslin

Kids Get Down To Earth is conducted in the winter months. This component focuses on the physical aspects of our watershed. The program comes to individual schools with activities. Four stations are set up that students participate in. Students are divided into small, manageable groups, typically not more than 10 students per station. Areas of importance are the dynamics of erosion, meandering, floodplains, bedload, water quality and geology. An erosion table and a pollution model are used to study the dynamics of a watershed. These models enables more children with a variety of learning styles to comprehend the many interrelationships of a watershed within earth, life, and physical science curriculums. Other activities include creating a nature journal/workbook, poetry, water quality experiments, and rock classification. Typically, the rock cycle and the water cycle are linked and studied. The focus is always on the unique environment that Chico Area school children have in their own backyard.