Place-Based Education and Community Knowledge Connect Youth to Water Topics

Graphical Abstract

Abstract

Learn about the We are Water programs that connect diverse communities through shared place and unique stories about water.

Keywords:

• Informal Education
• Environmental Science
• Inclusion
• Multicultural
• STEM

Conclusion

Western science supports our understanding of natural phenomena, like water scarcity and ways that water travels through the environment, but it is not the only way that people understand or learn about the world around them. To honor multiple ways of knowing, PBE programming in the We are Water project elevates community knowledge through activities about traditional practices and storytelling.

We are Water’s collection of take-and-make activity kits demonstrates how programs can inspire engagement with societally relevant science topics such as water by successfully combining different learning approaches and ways of knowing into a PBE program. Our library partners across the southwestern United States emphasized kids and their families were excited to learn about water in their local community through playful interaction with the topic, and that the kits provided a unique opportunity for them to learn about water in different ways.

Acknowledgment

We are Water springs from a collaboration between libraries, scientists, Indigenous scholars, educators, and researchers, with partners from CIRES, Indigenous Education Institute, Western Water Assessment, CoCoRaHS, Space Science Institute, Native Pathways, and Reimagine Research Group. We thank library staff from High Plains Library District, Aztec Public Library, Navajo Nation Library and Museum, Pine River Library, Montrose Regional Library, Zuni Tribal Archives, Ignacio Community Library, and Page Public Library for their partnership and support. This program work was supported by the National Science Foundation under the awards DRL-1907024 and DRL-1906951 and in part by the NOAA cooperative agreement NA22OAR4320151.

Land acknowledgment

We honor and acknowledge that the We are Water program takes place in the traditional territories and ancestral homelands of the Navajo, Jicarilla Apache, Hopi, Zuni, Ute Mountain Ute, Southern Ute, and Pueblo Nations. Their relationship with the land we call the Four Corners continues to this day. The region is also home to descendants of Hispanic and European Americans who first arrived here starting in the 1500s. 

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Brigitta Rongstad Strong

Brigitta Rongstad Strong is an associate scientist and the program manager for We are Water at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder.

Anne U. Gold

Anne U. Gold is the director of CIRES Education & Outreach at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder.

Claire Ratcliffe Adams

Claire Ratcliffe Adams is an education associate at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

Victoria Tomas

Victoria Tomas is a fourth- and fifth-grade teacher at Flagstaff Unified School District in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Angela Watkins

Angela Watkins is the library director at Aztec Public Library in Aztec, New Mexico.