What we plan to do

Phase 1 focused on water use for agriculture. Phase 2 extends that successful work to provide opportunities for students, families, and the public to explore fun and surprising connections between our water resources, ecosystems, and local communities.

Why are we doing it?

Primarily to increase awareness of water’s criticality to all of us. We think one of the best ways of doing that is to support teachers and students in understanding how water supports the vegetation and wildlife in rural and urban neighbourhoods and parks.

How will we do it?

We will continue partnering with other entities such as Inside Education, Trout Unlimited Canada and the Canadian Water Resources Association to ensure the content developed through this project is appropriate and effective for school-aged learners and their families, as well as the public. Our partners also play an important role in expanding the reach and awareness of the project content.

What will we deliver?

We will extend our Phase 1 content with the following:

1. Webpages with graphics highlighting creative and innovative actions in Canadian communities that support water, wildlife and ecosystem services.

2. A digital story-map allowing users to see the big picture of lakes, rivers, wetlands, and their relationships with our communities. The story-map will zoom in on various specific roles that water plays in the ecosystem, and will demonstrate water’s connections to animal and plant species.

3. A family learning package with digital and physical materials, games, and resources to teach multigenerational audiences about water connections and ecosystems services. These materials will include: A digital and printable board game that guides players through watersheds and water connections between our communities and ecosystem services; Infographics and worksheet activities to guide families or school groups in exploring water connections in their own backyards or parks.

4. Online engagement opportunities to build a digital series around water. This will allow the WaterPortal to promote the new learning materials and cultivate greater water literacy through feedback loops built into mini-podcasts, blogs, and discussion forums.

Why should you fund us?

The WaterPortal has a history of successfully completing projects and reaching thousands of students across Alberta. For some examples of our past work in this area, please have a look at the projects below.

• Follow the Drop game

• Water-Energy-Food Nexus videos

• Dams and reservoirs in Alberta map

How much do we need?

We’ve structured the project to have “core” deliverables which are the heart of the project. However, our past experience has shown that there are additional deliverables which really make a difference. We are seeking $75,000 in funding to deliver the entire project. Failing that, we will scale back on our “stretch” deliverables.

Deliverable_______________________________________________________Core__________Funding needed

Project costs: management, promotion, evaluation..........................Yes......................22,047

1: Content and Innovation feature webpages.....................................Yes......................16,530

1.a: Family learning package: board game........................................If funded................15,297

1.b: Family learning package: backyard education activities....If funded..................8,661

2: Story map.......................................................................................................Yes........................4,324

3: Digital series on water connections....................................................Yes........................8,141

.............................................................................................................................................Total:....75,000

What did we achieve in Phase 1?

We used industry-standard metrics and self-reporting from teachers to determine that we significantly exceeded our initial aims. We also debuted Water Connections at two teacher-student conferences.

Performance Measure_________________________Goal______Outcome_____% of Goal

No. of teachers using the resources........................30.....................40....................133%

No. of students using the resources*................3,000...............4,000....................133%

Users accessing materials in 1st month..............200..................569....................285%

Page views within 1st month...................................400...................742....................186%

Newsletter click rate in 1st first month...................5%................7.7%..................154%

*Indirect measure; a teacher’s reach is estimated to be 100 students per year