Educational Initiatives

 
Upper Tennessee River Adopt-A-Watershed Program

The Upper Tennessee River Adopt-A-Watershed (AAW) challenges students to investigate and improve the health of their school’s watershed. AAW is based on the nationally implemented Adopt-A-Watershed Program that is designed to transform a school’s watershed into a "living laboratory".

In Knox Co., the CAC AmeriCorps Water Quality Team along with trained middle and high school teachers use this laboratory as a place to bring curriculum to life by helping students assess their adopted watershed. It also gives students an opportunity to make a difference in their community by organizing and participating in a  ...more

 
Interested in seeing how data collected by students will be displayed?

As a part of the Adopt-A-Watershed Program, students collect information and data on their school's watershed.   "School Pages" will give students an opportunity to display the results of their watershed investigations.  INFORMATION AND DATA CURRENTLY DISPLAYED UNDER SCHOOL PAGES ARE MOCK AND ARE FOR DEMONSTRATION PURPOSES ONLY!  Photos were randomly selected and are not true to their caption.

We plan to involve classes in entering data into the website during the Spring Semester, 2003. At present, the South Doyle High Ecology class is field testing this site for us, with students entering data they have collected from the Stock Creek
 ...more

 
South Doyle High School's Stock Creek Investigation

The Stock Creek Watershed truly became a living laboratory for 150 South Doyle High School students who participated in the Water Quality Forum’s Adopt-A-Watershed Program this past year. Laurie McCullough, with the support of her fellow CAC AmeriCorps Water Quality Team members, assisted Mrs. Wargacki’s and Mrs. Neff’s Ecology and Biotechnology classes in conducting comprehensive investigations of the health of the Stock Creek watershed. Among other assessments, students evaluated land use impacts, conducted chemistry sampling, assessed the benthic macroinvertebrate and fish communities, and analyzed bacteriological levels in Stock Creek.

Using their new-found knowledge on how Stock Creek has been
 ...more

 
Friends of First Creek

The Friends of First Creek (FOFC) is a community-wide effort to reduce the amount of trash and other pollutants entering First Creek and ultimately the Tennessee River.  FOFC involves both education and action!  Over 1500 students and 125 teachers from Gresham, Central and Fulton Schools have learned about what it takes to protect the health of a watershed and have helped remove over six tons of trash from First Creek over the past three years.

Friends of First Creek has also educated restaurant owners and managers on what their businesses can do to help safeguard First Creek.  As a part of this outreach, ...full story

 
WaterFest

WaterFest 2008 is May 2!!

Once again it's time for the annual WaterFest at Ijams Nature Center. WaterFest is an annual festival designed to educate youth on the many values of water. It was initiated in 1995 by the Water Quality Forum and has grown into an event with hundreds of elementary school children attending from across Knox County and surrounding counties. Ijams hosts and coordinates this spring-time event that is planned by Forum partners throughout the year.

WaterFest is designed to be fast-paced, educational, entertaining, and just plain fun for students. The CAC ...full story

 
Halls High School Outdoor Classroom

Excitement is in the air at Halls High School as plans are made to develop and build their premier outdoor classroom. The idea was proposed to the Knox County School Board in September, and the wheels of action are beginning to turn on this momentous educational initiative.

 
Halls Outdoor Classroom Planting

^{Water Quality Forum partners have continued to combine efforts to develop the Halls Outdoor Classroom. One of the latest projects involved nearly 250 students from Mike Horner and Cindy Zachary’s 6th grade physical science classes at Halls Middle School. These students have been participating in the Knox County Adopt-A-Watershed (AAW) program since December, and after conducting visual, chemical, and bacteriological monitoring at the stream that runs through the outdoor classroom, the students concluded that the water quality of this Beaver Creek tributary could best be improved by expanding and enriching the riparian zone vegetation with native plant species. ...full story}

 
River Rescue

River Rescue is a community action event, coordinated by Ijams Nature Center, which involves hundreds of volunteers. This annual cleanup covers 50 miles of Tennessee River shoreline. River Rescue started in 1990 when volunteers gathered together and collected several tons of debris which included tires, electronics, bottles, cans, fast food wrappers, down to cigarette butts. Over the past 18 years, River Rescue has attracted 8805 volunteers. They've picked up 273.65 tons of debris and 1878 tires. The ...full story