Materials Available to Schools

A variety of materials are available for you to use.

Curriculum

If you are interested in any of these curricula, or you need assistance in designing your water unit, please call or email Barb Welch at 287-7682. Before calling, be aware of your specific goals, objectives and available resources.

Lesson plans. The DEP has put together some lesson plans on the topics of water quality and conservation, watersheds, and macroinvertebrates (bugs!). Feel free to print them out and try them in your class, or invite a DEP staff member to your class to help out.

Adopt-A-Watershed. The Adopt-A-Watershed curriculum offers many interdisciplinary units to excite students of all grade levels to get involved in local watershed issues http://www.adopt-a-watershed.org ). Each unit starts with classroom activities to prepare the students and culminates in an action project. Barb Welch, DEP Lakes Education Coordinator, is available to assist schools in designing an action project and collaborating with local environmental groups on environmental restoration projects. For more information call 287-7682 or email Barb Welch.

Air and Waste Management Association (AWMA). AWMA produced four grade levels (K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12) activity guides (similar to Project WET, Wild, etc) for nonpoint source (NPS) pollution prevention. Use them to find background information on NPS issues and activities for your classroom. The DEP has copies for grades 6-8 and 9-12 as well as copies of selected younger age activities that we can lend to teachers.

Books

Suggested reading list. This is list of both water-related storybooks and informative literature.

Streamkeeper's Field Guide. Created by the Adopt-A-Stream Program, this great book gives background information on how streams and their surrounding watersheds function, detailed methods on watershed inventory and stream monitoring for volunteers, tips on presenting data, and stories about Streamkeepers putting watershed inventory and stream monitoring info to use in the protectoin and restoration of our nation's streams. If interested in this guide or in the Stream Team Program through the Maine DEP, please contact Jeff Varricchione in Portland or Mary Ellen Dennis in Augusta.

Videos

NPS video library

Earthminders ITV Video Series. Videos are available for teachers from the Maine State Library Media Services section. Most programs are 50 minutes in length featuring natural resources related curriculum projects that have been happening in Maine since 1993. Some exciting stuff can be viewed by just requesting a copy from the library. Call 287-5620 for State Library Media Services.

Posters, Brochures and Book covers

To request a copy of the following from the DEP, email or call 207-287-3901.

Eight Simple Steps to Clean Water - a 3 color NPS poster listing 8 things homeowners can do to protect water quality.
Eight Simple Steps to Clean Water - a 3 color brochure to match the poster.
Clean Water Starts With You - book cover suitable for grades 5-7.
Clean Groundwater for Maine – book cover describing how Maine's groundwater fits in the hydrologic cycle, suitable for middle school.

The following are not available to be mailed, but thay can be picked up from our regional offices. Please call ahead to make sure they are available.

Katahdin to the Sea - a poster describing Maine's various aquatic habitats.
Undersea Landscapes of the Gulf of Maine – a poster describing underwater biology and geology of the Gulf.

Other

Please go to the DEP Land & Water Bureau's Education Page for newsletters, maps, lake database, training center, etc.

Please go to the DEP Air Bureau's Education Page for Earthminders, community sustainability, and other subjects.