Audubon Watershed Experience (AWE) is designed to connect students in a tangible way to their place in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed through meaningful experiences reinforced by comprehensive in-class activities. Through fishing, seining and bird watching, students will learn about the environment, conservation, and their own relationship to the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. The skills for these exciting and participatory activities will be developed through the comprehensive exploration of students’ local environment. In addition to gaining a hobby that has the potential to link them to the Chesapeake Bay for a lifetime, students will learn ecological components, making this program a captivating way to teach environmental science.

Each class participating in AWE will take part in the following:

Information session for teachers
Audubon staff prepares teachers for the year’s AWE program by discussing the program goals and expectations and by sharing materials. The information session allows the teacher to share their specific needs with Audubon educators.

Chesapeake Bay Watershed 101
Audubon staff visits the classroom to introduce the students to the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, its habitats and issues that are affecting its health today. Through a PowerPoint presentation using maps and graphics, students will see how human activities directly affect the Chesapeake Bay. A short classroom activity will help students learn how to use binoculars for their field trip experience.

A Day on the Chesapeake Bay
Students explore various habitats through water quality testing, seining, bird watching, fishing, and a biodiversity hike.  Students will collect water quality data and fish length data and create graphs for comparison.  Students will take gps coordinates and predict what wildlife should be present at several locations of motion sensor cameras. Students will get to follow-up by checking the AWE website for actual pictures taken by those cameras. The field experience provides opportunities for students to become involved in hobbies that can link them to the environment for life.

Making Connections
Audubon staff returns to the classroom to follow up on the field experience and discuss environmental issues affecting the Chesapeake Bay. Students will work in groups to discuss and then present actions to take on a particular issue. Students will be provided with issue packets including recent news articles, photographs, and discussion questions.

Pass It On!
Students have the chance to share the knowledge they gained through AWE. The class can be matched with a nearby elementary school for a mentoring experience. Alternatively, the class can perform an environmental action with the Audubon center such as a tree planting on or near their school grounds, participate in an invasive species removal day, make a video to spread awareness about an issue, etc. The Pass It On component allows students to take ownership of their experience by sharing their skills and observations with their local community.