Watershed

We have been busy learning about how Lake Champlain helps our town of Colchester. Yesterday, Stephanie Larkin, from the Lake Champlain Basin Program at ECHO, came in to teach us all about our watershed. A watershed is basically a piece of land that drains into a river, lake, stream, or ocean. We talked about ways that we inadvertently harm Lake  Champlain and ways that we can fix it. Stephanie brought a watershed model and the students were able to sprinkle various environmental hazards on the model.  A few of the ways that we were able to “act out” on the watershed model were animal waste, harmful fertilizer, soil erosion, grass clippings, litter, excess winter salt, and oil. Ways that we talked about to fix these issues are scooping up animal waste, composting, planting grass, shrubs and building fences, picking up litter, using salt sparingly during storms and finding more “earth friendly” ways to melt snow and ice, and fixing leaks in cars.  The kids LOVED the hands on experience and they really learned a lot!! We’ll be making a google slide presentation next week!