More international recognition is coming to Texas Aquatic Science Education Pathway by way of World Water Congress.
Texas Aquatic Science was invited to present a description and technical paper to the World Water Congress to be held at the end of May in Mexico. Over 5,000 attendees comeing from about 100 countries will attend the conference.
Attendees will hear the presentation entitled: Future water stewardship and fact-based water policy: an aquatic science education pathway model, by Rudolph Rosen, Institute for Water Resources Science and Technology at Texas A&M University in San Antonio, Erin Scanlon, Texas State University, and Johnnie Smith, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
Texas Aquatic Science originated from a project seeking better ways to educate students about water because of concern that current education was failing to promote good decisions about water by adult citizens and political leaders. A comprehensive water education curriculum was developed to engage learners from middle school through university using an education pathway to create water-savvy citizens of tomorrow who will take personal action to ensure effective stewardship of water and support evidence-based water policies. The paper to be presented at the World Water Congress will describe the pathway and present results of research on the pathway’s effectiveness with middle and high school students and teachers.
The XVIth World Water Congress
According to the website: http://worldwatercongress.com , the World Water Congresses aims to provide a meeting place to share experiences, promote discussion, and present new knowledge, research results and new developments in the field of water policy and science from around the world. For more than four decades, World Water Congresses have been the breeding ground for identification of major global themes concerning the water agenda as well as for bringing together a large cross-section of stakeholders for the development and implementation of decisions in the field of water.
(The following is adapted from http://worldwatercongress.com)
The overall theme of the XVIth World Water Congress is “Bridging Science and Policy.” Water is a vital resource for humanity. It is a crosscutting component of all social, economic and environmental activities. It is a condition for all life on our planet, an enabling or limiting factor for any social and technological development, a source of wellbeing and misery, and all-to-often a basis for conflict and cooperation.
While humanity has widely recognized the imperative of water and sharing, it has not always implemented sound approaches to the utilization, conservation, protection, and administration of the resource. One of the key challenges has been the disconnect between scientific knowledge and policy actions, between those making scientific and technological discoveries and advancements, and those who can mobilize governmental and societal adoption and implementation through practical and robust policies.
The objective of the XVIth World Water Congress is to bridge these gaps in knowledge, communication, and coordination. In particular, it aims to link professionals with information and experiences related to water resources at all levels, with experts working on key global water agendas and strategies. Accordingly, the Congress is targeted at natural and social scientists, practitioners, and technological innovators, as well as policy and decision-makers, financial stakeholders and investors, legal and regulatory specialists, and groups involved in capacity building. Additionally, the Congress is designed to catalyse cooperation and coordination among these professionals in order to facilitate global goals and strategies related to the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly those related to water, as well as agreements under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, thematic priorities of past and upcoming World Water Forums, and other water-related programs.
Texas Aquatic Science is a comprehensive curriculum for water and aquatic science education studies for middle and high school use, plus application at the university level for non science majors.
The curriculum consists of a textbook in hard copy and fully on line, a massive teachers resource and activity guide that includes assessments, specially produced aquatic science video, and 220 online video lessons all fully aligned with Texas teaching standards. It’s become the top-ranked curriculum and source for information on aquatic science on the internet today.
Aquatic science students and adult learners may navigate the online student portal. For teachers, the Teachers Guide is loaded with science investigations, games, models, cooperative learning activities, Internet projects, readings from the student guides, short aquatic science education videos, science journals, and field based assessments of water quality and environmental conditions in a variety of outdoor education field trips. Most time is spent doing hands on activities from the Teacher Guide, over 700 pages of TEKS aligned, hands-on activities designed to engage all learners and all learner types. Lessons in each chapter begin with an activity to allow the teacher to assess what students know about the concepts to be studied. Lessons embed higher order thinking skills, provide depth and complexity of learning, and provide a wide variety of hands-on activities that engage students in many contexts and methods. Each lesson includes an opportunity for students to apply what they have learned by synthesizing the information and demonstrating their learning by developing creative products or performances.
Texas Aquatic Science education includes the Texas Aquatic Science curriculum textbook, teacher guide and activities, aquatic science videos, on-line lessons, and curriculum website.