Youth Programs
Hands-on watershed education for students in the North Fork watershed.
Connecting Students to Their River
We help students experience the North Fork through hands-on activities, field experiences, and classroom visits. Whether we're exploring aquatic insects, demonstrating how a watershed works, or supporting a teacher's field trip, our goal is simple: help students build a connection to the river in their own backyard.
Our place-based educational programming delivers hands-on environmental education to students of all ages. We make learning about the river accessible through educational demonstrations, games, stream monitoring, and more. All of our programs are designed to get students outside, introduce them to local waterways and conservation, and support their curiosity in the natural world.
We partner with local schools, summer camps, scouting groups and other youth organizations to support their environmental education needs. Friends of the North Fork enhances field trips through hands-on activities and brings interactive lessons and demonstrations into your classroom.
Every educational opportunity is different. We will work with you to provide an experience that fits the age of your students, available time, and learning goals. Review our curriculum below, then contact us at friends@fnfsr.org to schedule your educational experience. We can deliver any of these lessons to your students, or we can collaborate to design an experience tailored to your individual educational needs.
Benthic Macroinvertebrates (all ages): This hands-on activity introduces students to benthic macroinvertebrate monitoring, an easy way to evaluate stream health . After an introduction to water pollution and benthic macroinvertebrate sensitivity levels, students will learn how to perform the VASOS Rocky Bottom Protocol to catch macroinvertebrates and identify the organisms they capture.
Water Quality Testing (high school): This hands-on lesson gets students outside and into the river! Students will learn how water quality affects aquatic ecosystems and discover how to use their senses to evaluate the river’s water quality. Then students will perform water quality testing by using test kits to measure salt and nitrates. Students can compare their test results to water quality standards and determine the health of the river.
EnviroScape Watershed Pollution Demonstration (3rd grade & up): This interactive demonstration uses an EnviroScape watershed model to show how common pollutants enter our waterways and negatively impact downstream areas of the watershed. Students apply various ingredients to the model to represent different pollutants, then simulate a rainstorm to illustrate how stormwater runoff moves pollutants into the waterways. After discussing pollution prevention strategies and applying these techniques to the model, simulate a second rainstorm to show how conservation efforts improve water quality!
Riparian Buffer Models (1st - 8th grade): This is a fun, interactive way for students to learn about riparian buffers, erosion, and stormwater runoff. Students will build their own landscapes out of sand and observe what happens to the sediment when it rains, with and without the presence of model riparian buffers.