By Liz Juchems

Look out Iowa! Here comes the Water Rocks! team to fire up students and teachers to embrace water quality and environmental awareness, highlight the conversation about what it means to Iowans, and teach how everyone can make things better for all.

Rolling into our sixth year of classroom and school assembly visits, Water Rocks! has already booked nearly 70 destinations for the current school year, and we’re looking to surpass last year’s 180 visits. Classroom visits are generally booked two to three months in advance, but teachers can always request slots through the end of the current school year. School assembly bookings fill up quickly and are made throughout the school term on a first-come, first-served basis. Making a request is as simple as jumping online.

What makes Water Rocks go?
Our teams’ enthusiasm for educating and making science relevant and understandable for every audience member shines through in our visits. A combination of science, music and information that every audience member can relate to, presented energetically through interactive games, songs and videos, turns adults into kids — and kids into advocates — before they even know what’s happening.

Solid foundation in science
Standing firmly behind the fun and games in Water Rocks presentations are environmental issues facing Iowa, leading-edge research and scientific study, and the latest approaches to land management, water quality assurance and environmental practices. Water Rocks, as a part of ISU Extension, is responsible for outreach and education efforts across Iowa.

Each program developed by Water Rocks has been aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards. Each lesson is adapted for grade-level appropriateness and can easily be scaled up or down when visiting multiple grades within the same school.

Our latest addition to the classroom program is “The Power of Pollinators,” complementing modules that focus on wetlands, watersheds, biodiversity and soil science. Current School Assembly topics include “We All Live in a Watershed,” “Dig Into Soil” and “The Power of Pollinators.”

Building culture of conservation
Water Rocks provides an unparalleled service to educators and students of Iowa through engaging and fun approaches to the science behind environmental practices. The program has engaged thousands of audience members over the years and produced a strong following of budding advocates interested in building a culture of conservation in Iowa and beyond. Visit waterrocks.org to see what all the buzz is about.

Juchems is a Water Rocks conservation outreach specialist.