Mass Audubon Waterways

Waterways is a place-based, field, and classroom science program for students in grades 5 through 12, created by a team of Mass Audubon educators who specialize in watershed education.

Our goal is to provide students with the opportunity to connect to their local watershed, develop an understanding of how it provides essential benefits to their community and surrounding ecosystems, investigate how climate change is affecting the watershed and take action to mitigate those effects and stressors.

Aligned to Massachusetts Next Generation Science Standards, Waterways takes students on a journey from creeks, rivers, and streams to the estuaries, marshes and oceans to which those waterways eventually flow.  Students will focus on local watershed issues, spend time investigating and collecting data in that watershed and participate in a community action project that helps to address the issue. 

The driving question for Waterways is: How is climate change impacting local watersheds and what can we do to help?

Waterways provides place-based watershed education for students through a multi-stage process. Programming starts with classroom visits, led by Mass Audubon educators which align with the current curriculum and Massachusetts Next Generation Science Standards.

In-class programming tends to focus on watershed issues such as runoff, climate change, biodiversity, non-point pollution, plastics, food and life cycles, and more. Classroom visits also focus on identifying local issues and brainstorming solutions in the form of action projects. Action projects develop throughout the program, with implementation occurring toward the conclusion of the partnership.

Classroom visits then lead into Field Experiences, led by Mass Audubon educators and community partners. Field Experiences bring students from their classrooms into the watershed, encouraging them to explore local natural resources and investigate watershed issues first-hand. Mass Audubon educators lead students through a myriad of local resources including Mass Audubon sanctuaries like Arcadia and Long Pasture Wildlife Sanctuaries, local reservoirs, vernal pools, salt marshes, urban rivers and forests. Students engage in a multitude of place-based science activities including water quality sampling and analysis, macroinvertebrate sampling, data collection for a bio blitz, identification and removal of invasive plants and more.

These trips not only help Mass Audubon educators provide local context for previous classroom lessons, but allow students to make meaningful connections to their local watersheds. These connections encourage young people to appreciate the power and beauty of nature and foster a sense of life-long stewardship for their local natural resources.

Action projects help round-out the program and allow students to develop solutions for local watershed issues. Action projects typical take shape throughout the program - in class lessons build a foundation of science standards for students to build off, while field experiences expose students to real-world watershed issues occurring in their own backyard.

Continue below to see our successful programing within each of the Mass Audubon regions

In the Waterways program, Mass Audubon staff members collaborate with classroom teachers to implement the curriculum and ensure

Students will:

1. Feel a sense of stewardship and connection to their local watershed
2. Understand how climate change is affecting their local watershed
3. Understand their watershed's importance to their community and surrounding ecosystems.
4. Participate in field-based investigation and gain understand of how scientists collect data to help solve real problems.
5. Participate in a community action project to mitigate climate change impacts, using a solutions-oriented lens, focusing on outcomes that improve community and ecosystem health.

Classroom teachers will be able to...

1. Teach outdoors, using local phenomenon to support science education
2. Connect with community organizations to support curricular goals, and create a support network with local watershed organizations and other stakeholders.
3. Address climate change in a solutions-oriented way
4. Support field-based, community action projects.

This program was inspired and made possible by generous funding from NOAA’s Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) program, as well as support from the Massachusetts Department of Education, and the River Stewardship Council.

To learn more about the Waterways program, contact education@massaudubon.org